OF BIRDS* 
225 
Black and White Gull* ( Larus . PL 37.) This is 
by far the largest of all the gull-kind, weighing general- 
ly upwards of four pounds, and being twenty-five or 
twenty-six inches, from the point of the bill to the end 
of the tail; and from the tip of each wing, when extend- 
ed, five feet and several inches. The bill appears com- 
pressed sideways, being more than three inches long, and 
hooked towards the end, like the rest of this kind, of a 
sort of orange colour; the nostrils in an oblong form; the 
mouth wide, with a long tongue and very open gullet. 
The irides of the eyes are of a delightful red. The 
wings, and the middle of the back are black, only the 
tips of the covert and quill feathers are white. The head, 
breast, tail, and other parts of the body are likewise white. 
The tail is near six inches long, the legs and feet are 
flesh-coloured, and the claws black. It is a sea fowl, and 
preys upon fishes, which have been taken whole from 
its stomach. — There are about twenty varieties of this 
tribe, which are all distinguished by an angular knob on 
the chap. 
Gulls are found in great plenty in every place; but it 
is chiefly round the rockiest shores that they are seen in 
the greatest abundance; it is there that the gull breeds 
and brings up its young; it is there that millions of them 
are heard screaming with discordant notes for months 
together. 
These birds, like all others of the rapacious kind, lay 
but few eggs; and hence, in many places, their number 
is daily seen to diminish. The lessening of so many ra- 
pacious birds may, at first sight, appear a benefit to man- 
kind; but when we consider how many of the natives of 
our islands are sustained by their flesh, either fresh or 
salted, we shall find no satisfaction in thinking that these 
poor people may in time lose their chief support. The 
gull, in general, as was said, builds on the ledges of rocks, 
and lays from one egg to three, in a nest formed of long 
grass and sea-weed. Most of the kind are fishy tasted, 
with black stringy flesh; yet the young ones are better 
food; and of these, with several other birds of the penguin 
kind, the poor inhabitants of our northern islands mak^ 
