PACIFIC GULL. 
80 seconds (actual count). When sailing directly in the eye of the wind on 
motionless wings, and wishful of changing its course either to the right or 
the left, the tips of the wings are slightly depressed, and the body brought 
round by a slight lateral movement of the head and tail, but not the faintest 
semblance of a flap is given. Its cry is a very harsh, single note, which 
frequently might be mistaken for a short, sharp bark uttered by a terrier 
dog. At other times a somewhat long drawn-out note, sounding like 
‘ Oh-ah,’ is uttered in doublets, especially when hawking in couples over 
Petrel rookeries.” 
Colonel Legge* says : “ This Gull is a later breeder than the little species 
[Bruchigavia]. On the 31st October there were no nests on the Islands ; 
but on the 20th November I learned that large numbers of eggs had been 
taken by the Recherche people. On the 28th I only found two nests, as the 
birds had evidently been driven away from the Islands, owing to the whole- 
sale taking of their eggs. The nests were constructed in the centre of the 
wild celery plant, which was growing among the smaller rounded boulders 
near the top of the rocky shore. The centre of the plant was trampled down 
into a hollow and a few tufts of grass placed in the depression, forming a nest 
10 inches wide by 5 inches deep. The eggs of this species are very large and 
vary considerably in size and shape. They are usually broad ovals, more 
or less stumpy at the small end, but some have a pointed or pyriform shape. 
I do not observe much variation in the ground colour, which is olive grey or 
pale stone grey or whitish stone colour. The markings are generally small 
and sparingly distributed over the surface without regard to either end, and 
are of a pale umber brown, or light sepia in some, over brownish blue spots, 
blots and specks, these again over-lying primary pale spots of blue grey. 
Occasionally eggs are found with large handsome clouds of reddish sepia over- 
lying faint blotches of bluish grey. A series of' five vary in length from 3.0 
to 2.69 inches and in breadth from 2.1 to 2.2 inches.” 
When Latham went through the Watling drawings he came across a 
picture of a young bird, which he described in the Suppl Gen. Synops. 
Birds, Vol. II., p. 332, 1801, under the name of the Pacific Gull : — 
“ The general colour of the plumage in this bird is deep brown ; but the 
under parts, the rump, and tips of the lesser wing coverts are very pale brown, 
approaching to white ; tail rather short, rounded at the end ; bill dirtv 
orange, swelling near the point, where it is crossed with dusky or black ; 
legs dusky. 
“ Inhabits New South Wales ; where is also found the Black-backed GuU 
or a species so similar thereto^ as not to merit description.” 
* Papers Proc. Roy. Soc. Tasm. 1887, p. 132, 1888. 
VOL. n. 
477 
