BRITISH BIRDS 



THE IVORY GULL. 



Pagophila eburnea (Phipps). 

 Plate 74. 



This beautiful species is a rare visitor, more often seen off our northern shores 

 than elsewhere in the British Islands, and usually in winter. Inhabiting the icy- 

 seas of the Polar regions, where it is abundant, it wanders southwards as the cold 

 increases, when some of the birds find their way to Europe and North America. 



The nest, composed of sea^weed, lichen, splinters of drift-wood, and feathers, is 

 placed high up on steep cliffs or on the ground, and contains one or sometimes two 

 eggs, in ground-colour pale greenish-brown, spotted and blotched with dark brown. 



These birds not only eat crustaceans and other marine creatures, but eagerly 

 feed on the flesh of dead whales when they get the opportunity. 



The drawing of this species in the plate was taken from a sketch of a living 

 specimen in the Zoological Gardens of London. 



The plumage of the young bird is spotted with black until it attains maturity. 



72 



