NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 
247 
21st of August. They were all birds of the year, being every where mottled 
with dull greyish ; the primaries and a broad terminal band on the tail black, 
as is also the terminal third of the bill, the rest being light flesh color. They 
were shot while busily engaged in fishing for lance, which seemed to form their 
favorite food. On skinning them, I found the gullet and stomach filled with 
the fish. They were not at all shy ; they permitted a near approach without 
desisting from their occupation, and the three were shot in rapid succession 
before the rest became alarmed and flew off. Indeed, I have often thought 
that the wariness of Gulls is in exact proportion to their size. Thus the little 
Hooded Gulls, and the Kittiwakes, are so familiar as to hover and sport near 
the stern of a vessel ; the Ring-bills come next, and though not so unsuspicious 
as the last, are by no means sby ; the Herring Gulls, the next in size, are much 
more watchful and difficult to procure, while the Black-backed and Glaucous 
Gulls evince such excessive wariness and caution that it is only by stratagem 
they can be procured. Though the theory may not hold good in all cases, I 
certainly saw no exceptions to it during my stay in Labrador. 
Chroicocephalus Philadelphia (Ord.) Lawr. — Bonaparte’s Gull. 
Lams Bonapartei, Aud., Birds Amer. vii. 131 ; pi. 442. 
Chroicocephalus Philadelphia , Lawrence, Gen. Rep. 852. 
Many of these beautiful little Gulls were seen at different times during the 
voyage, though they were perhaps more abundant than elsewhere in the south- 
ern portions of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is not a little singular that the 
breeding places of a Gull so common, well known, and widely diffused as the 
present, should be still unascertained with certainty, and the egg almost un- 
known to science ; yet such is the case. Though my opportunities of observing 
this species were limited, I could not but be struck with the remarkable fami- 
liarity and want of suspicion exhibited by it on all occasions. Numbers would 
often hover and sport around the stern of the vessel, so close that I could plainly 
see the dark spot behind the eye which characterizes the immature bird of 
this species. Their flight on such occasions, and indeed at all times, is ex- 
tremely buoyant and graceful, in these respects resembling that of a Tern 
rather than of a Gull. I noticed that, while flying, individuals would scratch 
the head and neck with their claws, which operation, however, did not seem to 
impede their flight in the least. At that season (September) none were seen 
with the head enveloped in the hood which adorns both sexes during the 
breeding season. Those which I took to be birds of the year, had all a broad 
subterminal band of black on the tail, and in many the black of the primaries 
extended unbroken over the shoulder quite to the body. 
Rissa trydactila (L.) Bon. — Kittiwake Gull. 
Larus tridactylas , Aud., Birds Amer, vii. 146; pi. 444. 
Rissa tridactyla , Lawrence, Gen. Rep. 854. 
I met with this interesting Gull on but one occasion, which was on the 3d of 
August, while sailing up Esquimaux Bay several miles from its mouth. A small 
company hovered and circled over the boat, and a specimen was secured. Being 
only wing-tipped, it fluttered to some distance on the water, constantly utter- 
ing its piercing screams, which caused its comrades to hover over it for some 
time, showing their sympathy by loud cries. 
Sterna Wilsoni Bon.— Wilson’s Tern. u Mackerel Gull.” 
’ Sterna Wilsoni, And., Birds Amer. vii. 97; pi. 433. Lawrence, Gen. Rep. 861. 
During my short stay at Rigolet, I saw a good many of these Terns, but found 
none in any other locality. They possess in the extreme the buoyancy, grace- 
fulness and ease of flight for which the whole family is so celebrated, perform- 
ing the most beautiful evolutions without the least apparent effort. To obtain 
1861.] 
