56 
THE GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. 
nests or seek for safety in the clefts of the rocks ; the Guillemots and Gan- 
nets dread'to look up, and the other Gulls, unable to cope with the destroyer, 
give way as he advances. Far off among the roaring billows, he spies the 
carcass of some monster of the deep, and, on steady wing, glides off towards 
it. Alighting on the huge whale, he throws upwards his head, opens his bill, 
and, louder and fiercer than ever, sends his cries through the air. Leisurely 
he walks over the putrid mass, and now, assured that all is safe, he tears, 
tugs, and swallows piece after piece, until he is crammed to the throat, when 
he lays himself down surfeited and exhausted, to rest for awhile in the feeble 
sheen of the northern sun. Great, however, are the powers of his stomach, 
and ere long the half-putrid food which, vulture-like, he has devoured, is 
digested. Like all gluttons, he loves variety, and away he flies to some 
well-known isle, where thousands of young birds or eggs are to be found. 
There, without remorse, he breaks the shells, swallows their contents, and 
begins leisurely to devour the helpless young. -Neither the cries of the 
parents, nor all their attempts to drive the plunderer away, can induce him 
to desist until he has again satisfied his ever-craving appetite. But although 
tyrannical, the Great Gull is a coward, and meanly does he sneak off when 
he sees the Skua fly up, which, smaller as it is, yet evinces a thoughtless 
intrepidity, that strikes the ravenous and merciless bird with terror. 
If we compare this species with some other of its tribe, and mark its 
great size, its powerful flight, and its robust constitution, we cannot but 
wonder to find its range so limited during the breeding season. Few indi- 
viduals are to be found northward of the entrance into Baffin’s Bay, and 
rarely are they met with beyond this, as no mention is made of them by 
Dr. Richardson in the Fauna Boreali-Americana. Along our coast, none 
breed farther south than the eastern extremity of Maine. The western 
shores of Labrador, along an extent of about three hundred miles, afford the 
stations to which this species resorts during spring and summer : there it is 
abundant, and there it was that I studied its habits. 
The farthest limits of the winter migrations of the young, so far as I liave 
observed, are the middle portions of the eastern coasts of the Floridas. 
While at St. Augustine, in the winter of 1831, I saw several pairs keeping 
company with the young Brown Pelican, more as a matter of interest than 
of friendship, as they frequently chased them as if to force them to disgorge 
a portion of their earnings, acting much in the same manner as the Lestris 
does toward the smaller Gulls, but without any effect. They were extremely 
shy, alighted only on the outer edges of the outer sand-bars, and could not 
be approached, as they regularly walked off before my party the moment 
any of us moved towards them, until reaching the last projecting point, they 
flew off, and never stopped while in sight. At what period they left that 
