THE CORMORANT GULL. 
319 
Near by was a low and isolated rock-ledge, which we 
called Hans Island. The glaucous gulls, those cormo¬ 
rants of the Arctic seas, had made it their peculiar 
homestead. Their progeny, already full-fledged and 
voracious, crowded the guano-whitened rocks; and the 
GLAUCOUS AND TRIDACTYL GULLS. 
mothers, with long necks and gaping yellow bills, 
swooped above the peaceful shallows of the eiders, 
carrying off the young birds, seemingly just as their 
wants required. A more domineering and insatiable 
rapacity I have never witnessed. The gull would 
gobble up and swallow a young eider in less time than 
