PLATE XLYII. 



GENUS LARUS (Linnceus). 



TIlRUE cosmopolites, the members of this genus inhabit the shores and islands of every zone, 

 J- although there is but one representative found in Australia, the which represents the L. Marinus 

 of European and American seas. From its northern prototype, however, it differs in the manner of 

 its flight, which is powerful and buoyant, but in all other respects they are similar. Like those 

 of Europe and America, the Gulls of the southern hemisphere are voracious and clamorous birds, and 

 they may be styled the vultures of the sea, devouring as they do carrion of every kind which floats 

 on the surface or is cast ashore. With the exception of the Great Skua, the Gulls familiar to us 

 in Australia are timid, unless when assailed by hunger, or when driven by inclement weather they 

 seek refuge on shore, and establish themselves in the immediate vicinity of the dwellings of man. 



L A 11 IT S PACIFIC US (Latham). 

 PACIFIC GULL. Genus: Larus. 



IX stormy weather, especially if it be an easterly gale upon the coast of New South Wales, a 

 by no means infrequent visitation are the flocks of this species of the family Laridce, which, 

 driven from their ordinary haunts by the violence of the wind and sea, travel inland till the desired 

 shelter is found in some depression of the country, such as a grassy flat or the margin of a swamp 

 or lake ; and here they will remain till the violence of the storm has abated, either wandering about 

 the flats in a contented manner, or picking up the worms and larvae generally to be found in newly - 

 ploughed fields. On such occasions as this it has been observed, immediately after the birds have 

 alighted from their journey from the sea. that many appear to have suffered severely from the weather, 

 and are barely able to sustain life by looking for worms or such other food as may be in the 

 neighbourhood ; it is then that they may be captured and domesticated, and there is no other of the 

 ocean-haunting birds that so soon resigns itself to imprisonment as this Gull. It is no unusual sight 

 in many of our coastal towns to see one of these white sea wanderers walking about in an apparently 

 contented manner among the common poultry of the farm, although the garden is the haunt preferred, 

 as there may be found a plentiful supply of worms and snails, for which diet the captive shows a 

 strong taste, although meat, bread, and, in fact, almost any food will be eagerly eaten by the bird 

 as time passes on and the desire to escape to the ocean dies away. Looking at a captive Gull 

 under circumstances such as these, it appears difficult even to imagine that this pretty creature is the 

 prototype of the Gulls of the northern hemisphere as described by M. Baillon, who says that their 

 ignoble port, their importunate cries, their edged and hooked bills, present the hateful picture of birds 

 sanguinary and basely cruel ; they fight rancourously together on the scene of carnage, and even 

 when they are shut up, and their ferocious humour is soured by captivity, they wound each other 

 without apparent motive, and the first from which blood is drawn falls a victim to the rest, for 

 their fury then rises to a pitch, and they tear in pieces the unfortunate wretch which they had 

 wounded without cause. 



