78 
Allen’s naturalist’s 
LIBRARY. 
Habits.— The “Burgomaster,” a.s this great Gull is often 
rulk^’of rh omnivorous species, robbing other 
>oung birds. Scebohm thus describes h s experiences of the 
species m the north of Norway :_«The Glaucoms GuH breSS 
tlie c iffs at Vardo, and a large flock, composed principallv 
of immature and entirely of non-breeding birds, frequents^ the 
retches of sand left at low water near Wdso, thirty Ses to 
he south of the breeding colony. When I was at this town 
oboiu t/rhaibn 'T’'! ’^O^'rs flying 
about the haibour; but by far the greater portion of them 
retired to a distant sand-bank, which extended from the 
. outhern promontory of the island in the Varantrer Fiord 
apparently to roost, as the sun approached the norfh They 
XriSedlniH “-’tinually 
uuii Ureeds on the precipitous cliffs, Harvie-Brown and I 
afterw aids found its nest on one of the low flat islands which 
separate the lagoon of the Petchora from the Arctic Ocean 
1 his island was a flat desert of sand, unrelieved by a blade' of 
grass, and it rises very slightly above the level of the sea which 
varies veiy little (only five or six inches) with the tide.” ' 
Seebohm on the Petchora are 
described by him as ‘heaps of sand hollowed slightly at the 
■’•regularly disposed tufts of sea- 
weed. Ml frevor-Battye thus describes the breedin<r of the 
the outer eand.bankt, to the south of Sch.irSk Sour' The°y 
were visible from a very long distance, and proved to be lumbs 
formed of sand and mixed with sea-w^eds and great quanlSs 
sTnd liaHi’ 
bSheS'Taken’fdvam 
height. As tiS‘'Soyeds''SSesrrsts^ 
wonders that anv votin0 r\rr tli i j one 
mohhpfl hv A ^ Si Hyland was so violently 
at he sW 1 - ’’is head, 
tnat lie shot two in self-defence. 
