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CHAPTER XXII. 
GULLS : — THE GREAT AND LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS — 
THE HERRING, GLAUCUS, WHITE-WINGED,' AND GREEN-BILLED 
GULLS THE COMMON, POMARINE, RICHARDSON's, AND 
PARASITIC SKUAS THE AVHALE GULL THE KITTIWAKE 
THE LEADEN-GREY AND BROWN-HOODED MEWS THE 
BROWN-MASKED, SABINE'S, BONAPARTE's, AND THE LITTLE 
MEWS THE ROSY GULL. 
}N the Larinoe^ or Gull family, we have a number of birds 
which present many of the same characteristics as do the 
Petrels and Terns; indeed, by some authors they are 
included with them in one family group. In Macgillivray's 
synopsis of the British members of the Larince^ we find six 
genera, and nineteen species, of whose general habits this 
account is given : — 
These birds inhabit the shores of the ocean, along which they 
wander in search of food, the larger species preying on fishes, 
Crustacea, mollusca, and occasionally feeding on the carcases of 
cetacea, seals, and other marine mammalia, while the smaller feed 
chiefly on fishes, articulated and molluscous animals. They all. 
pursue shoals of fishes in the open sea, often to great distances from 
the shore, and many of them make occasional excursions over the 
land, especially in stormy weather. They walk with considerable ease, 
wade in shallow pools, or by the shore, swim moderately well, and sit 
very lightly on the water, but are incapable of diving. Their flight 
is buoyant, in general moderately rapid, easy, gliding, and protracted. 
Hovering over the water, they sometimes plunge headlong upon their 
pFey, but more frequently seize it only when it is near enough to the 
surface to render it unnecessary to immerse more than the bill and 
the head. When thus looking for food, they sustain themselves by a 
quivering movement of their upstretched wings, and occasionally by 
patting the water with their feet. They generally congregate, often 
in vast numbers, in particular places, as headlands, clifls, rocky 
islands, some of them in marshes, or upon islets in lakes, for the 
purpose of breeding. Their nests are bulky, or rudely constructed, 
