400 
THE GULL. 
of the softest down : light, too, as he is, he tops and rides 
over the waves without an effort ; and his wide wings insure 
him a safe conveyance from every peril, save that of the gun, 
to which he may he exposed. 
They are a very numerous tribe, differing a good deal in 
their habits, if not in their external features. The king of 
them all seems to he the Burgomaster ( Lams glaucus), a 
name given by the Dutch, being the title of their chief 
magistrate, to which, by his conduct, he has a fair claim, for 
no other Gull dares dispute his authority, when he chooses to 
exert it. A constant attendant on the whale -fishers, when- 
ever they are busied in cutting up a whale, he hovers over 
the carcase, and having fixed his eye on a choice morsel of 
blubber or flesh, which some other of the Gull tribe has 
secured for itself, down he comes, and, forcing it to abandon 
the prize, carries it off as his own ; or, if pressed by hunger, 
he will sometimes even fall upon one of the smaller sea-birds, 
and devour it whole. Thus, one of them was shot in the 
Polar expedition under Sir Edward Pairy, which immediately 
disgorged an Auk, or Greenland Dove; and, on opening him, 
another was found undigested in his stomach. But this 
Burgomaster, tyrant as he is, has a rival quite his equal in 
tyranny, and, though his inferior in size, surpassing him in 
courage and activity. The Arctic Gull, or Dung-Hunter 
White Gull. 
(Lestris parasi- 
ticus), fears no 
bird, nor even 
hesitates to attack 
any animal, of 
whatever size, that 
comes too near its 
nest. Where they 
breed in consi- 
derable numbers, 
neither Hawks, nor 
even Eagles, are 
allowed to ap- 
proach ; for if, 
either by accident 
