314 
POPULAR HISTORY OP BIRDS. 
these powerful gulls directly assailed it^ and soon totally 
devoured it^ with the exception of the larger bones. In the 
spring of 1849^ when Mr. Bell and I were encamped at the 
head of Bear Lake Eiver^ waiting for the disruption of the 
ice^ the gulls robbed us of many geese^ leaving nothing but 
well-picked skeletons. Mr. Bell^ who was the chief sports- 
man on this occasion^ and spent the day in traversing the 
half-thawed marshes in quest of game^ hung the birds, as 
he shot them, to the branch of a tree, or deposited them on 
a rock; but, on collecting the produce of his chase in the 
evening, he found that the gulls had left him little besides 
the bones to carry. If by chance a goose, when shot, fell 
into the river, a gull speedily took his stand on the carcase, 
and proceeded to tear out the entrails, and devour the flesh, 
as he floated with it down the current. Even the raven 
kept aloof when a gull had taken possession of a bird"^.''^ 
The Ivory Gull {Larus ehurneus) is so called from the 
pure white of its plumage ; so white, that when resting on 
ice, it can only be distinguished by its black legs and bill. 
It is one of the most characteristic inhabitants of the 
Arctic regions. 
Alfred Wallace, in his excellent voyage and travels of 
* Arctic Searching Expedition, vol. i. pp. 201, 202. 
