CHAPTER IX. 
THE GULL 
(Lams). 
A FAMILY PICTUEE. 
“ In-sliore their passage tribes of sea-gulls urge, 
And drop for prey within the sweeping surge; 
Oft in the rough opposing blast they fly 
Far hack, then turn, and all their force apply, 
While to the storm they give their weak complaining cry; 
Or clap the sleek white pinion to the breast, 
And in the restless ocean dip for rest.” 
Crabbe. 
Let the seaman sail as far as lie may, north or south, 
he always meets with the Gull,—“ the Raven of the sea.” 
Like Ravens and Crows, ashore, Gulls possess really no 
fixed home,—they are cosmopolitans. They are found 
spread over every sea; on every ocean some members of 
the family are to be met with: they are, however, never 
seen far out on the open sea, but always prefer the 
immediate neighbourhood of the coast, only quitting the 
same by force of circumstances;—that is to say, when 
driven by stress of weather, rarely getting farther than 
twenty miles from land. It is the Gull that first greets 
the eye of the wanderer when homeward bound; and it is 
to the Gull that the emigrant bids his last farewell, when 
seeking his new home in a foreign land. These birds 
