70 
THE POMARINE JAGEE. 
abated, when they went off to sea, and I saw no more of them until we 
reached St. George’s Bay in Newfoundland. 
There, on a squally afternoon, two or three of them were observed flying 
around, but keeping at such a distance that we could not shoot any of them. 
The following day, after setting sail, we encountered a heavy gale, which, 
although foretold by me from the appearance of the birds in the harbour, 
our good captain would not believe as likely to happen. We were obliged 
to lie-to, and were tossed about for three nights and days, but escaped with 
little other damage than the loss of a pet Gull, which was washed overboard. 
On our return to Eastport, Captain Emery told me that he had seen a 
great number of these Jagers near Cape Sable-; and at Halifax, in Nova 
Scotia, I was assured that they breed on Sable Island, which is sixty or 
seventy miles distant from the coast. I never observed one of these birds 
along the shores of the United States, although some of the genus go as far 
south iri winter as the Gulf of Mexico. 
Nothing is known with certainty respecting the changes which this species 
undergoes as it advances toward maturity. Captain James Clark Ross, R. 
N., has informed me that a nest containing two eggs was found by him near 
Fury Point, close by the edge of a small lake. I have no doubt that this 
bird breeds in Labrador, as the female which I obtained in July appeared 
as if it had young at the time. 
My friend Mr. Selby states that he is not aware that an adult bird has 
yet been killed in Britain. M. Temminck says it forms a rude nest of grass 
and moss, which is placed on a tuft in the marshes, or on a rock, and lays 
two or three very pointed eggs, of a greyish-olive colour, marked with a 
few blackish spots. Dr. Richardson has the following notice respecting it 
in the Fauna Boreali-Americana : — “ The Pomarine Jager or Gull-hunter is 
not uncommon in the Arctic seas and northern outlets of Hudson’s Bay, 
where it subsists on putrid fish and other animal substances thrown up by 
the sea, and also on the matters which the Gulls disgorge when pursued by 
it. It retires from the north in the winter, and makes its first appearance 
at Hudson’s Bay in May, coming in from seaward.” 
Lestris pomarina, Bonap. Syn., p. 364. 
Lestris pomarina, Pomarine Jager, Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 429. 
Pomarine Jager, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 315. 
Pomarine Jager, Lestris pomarinus, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iii. p. 396 ; vol. v p. 643. 
Female, 20J, 48. 
From Massachusetts northward. Seen in Labrador. Breeds in high 
northern latitudes. 
Adult Female. 
