L. canus, Lin. &c. Common Gull. Prov. Sea IVO!, or Mew. Length or the tarsus two inches, wings reaching beyond the tail, shafts of the two outer quill feathers black, bill comparatively small. Although this is the most com mon of all the British gulls, the different stages of its plu mage have but lately been ascertained with accuracy. Size of a pigeon, weighing about a pound, and measur ing from sixteen to seventeen inches in length and three feet five inches in expanse of wing. Inhabits Europe and America, lives on fishes, vermes, insects, and their larva, &c.; breeds among the rocks or stones on the sea-shore, and lays two eggs nearly the size of those of the common hen, but of an olive brown, marked with dark reddish blotches. At the mouths of large rivers, common gulls are seen in numbers picking up the animal substances which are cast on shore, or that come floating clown with the ebbing tide. For this kind of food they watch with a quick eye ; and such of them as are near the breakers, will mount on the surface of the water, and run splashing to the summit of a wave to catch the object of pursuit. At particular seasons they also resort to theniland parts of the country to feed on worms, &c. In winter, in par ticular, they are sometimes observed at a considerable distance from the shore ; and in severe weather they will consort with rooks, and follow the plough for the sake of the larva of the chafer. When they retire from the sea, on the Norwegian coast, and take refuge behind houses, the inhabit-ants pretty confidently anticipate a storm. Baillon asserts from his own observation, that they are tamed with much more difficulty than some of the other species, whereas we have been assured, on the most re spectable testimony, that they are very tractable, and may be easily kept in a garden for the purpose of clearing it of snails, and almost every kind of insect, which they do very completely. Those which the gentleman to whom we allude had occasion to see thus circumstanced, paid a short visit to the sea every day, and regularly returned to their station. These apparently conflicting statements may not be irreconcileable ; for, among gulls, as among other animals, individuals may manifest considerable di versity of character and dispositions, and even similar cha racters and dispositions may be differently influenced by different modes of treatment. Col. Montagu seems to have kept birds of this species alive without difficulty; and he observes, that, in default of fish or worms, they will, when pressed with hunger, pick up grain ; but one of them will also contrive to stow within its body an eel of a loot in length. They very readily disgorge on the least alarm, and promptly re-swallow the ejected morsels when the fright is over. Some persons who live near the sea commonly eat this as they do other species of gulls, which they describe as being good for food, when they have undergone some sweetening process before cooking, such as being buried for a day in fresh mould, or washed with vinegar.
L. trufactylus and I. rissa,Gmel. Tarrock, or Kit tiwake Gull, Prov. ../Innette or Kishilaik. Length of the tarsus one inch four lines, a clawless tubercle in place of a hind-toe. Size of a pigeon ; weight fourteen ounces; length from fourteen to fifteen inches, and extent of wing from thirty-eight to forty inches. Inhabits Europe, Asia, and America, particularly the northern Atlantic, from the British Isles to the highest latitudes that have been visit ed. Though rare on the south coast of England, it is found on the Fern Islands, where it breeds, as also on the cliffs about Flamborough Head, the Bass, Isle of May, the rocks near Slains Castle, &c. The tarrocks leave the shores in autumn, and spread themselves over the North ern Ocean, making their chief resting places, it is alleg ed, on the floating islands of ice. In the spring they re tire to the rocky crags, In the Faroe Isles they arrive in January, and frequent the steep cliffs, where they con struct their nests of straw, sea-ware, earth, and clay, and crowd them close together. When these nests are visit ed by the Skua gull, the whole flock may be seen on wing, uttering loud screams, and making the air resound with their clamour. In the month of June the female lays two or three eggs, of a dingy green. or olivaceous white,
ed with a great many small darker, and some less conspi cuous cinereous spots In the Orkneys they sometimes cover entire tracts of rock, so as to make them appear white at a distance. The shooting of the young, when they issue unfledged from the nest, and rest on the cliffs, is reckoned excellent sport, and the game is reputed a whet to the although an epicure, who visited the Isle of May purposely to ascertain the fact, declared, af ter despatching a dozen of them, that he did not feel more disposed for dinner than usual. Even the old birds are much relished by the Greenlanders, who also make cloth in of the skins. One of this species that was kept and tamed recognised its master's voice at a distance, and an swered him with its hoarse piping note. It had a vora cious -appetite, and, though plentifully fed on bread, would rob the poultry of their share.
L. Saban Sabinian Gull. The thigh feathered to within three eighths of an inch of the knee ; length of th6 tarsus one inch and a half, the hinder toe small, and plac ed high. Individuals were met with by Captain Sabine, and killed, on the 29th of July, 1818, on a group of three low rocky islands on the west coast of Greenland, twenty miles distant from the mainland. They were associated in considerable numbers with the common terns, the nests of both birds being intermingled. But they were not seen again during Captain Ross's voyage through Davis' and Baffin's Straits. The Esquimaux, who had accompanied the expedition as interpreter, and who possessed some knowledge of the native birds of South Greenland, had never observed them before. They flew with impetuosity towards persons approaching their nests and young; and, when one bird of a pair was killed, its mate, though fre quently fired at, continued on wing close to the spot where it lay, They get their food on the sea beach, standing near the water's edge, and picking up the marine insects that are cast on shore. This species lays two eggs on the bare ground, and hatches them the last week of July. They are an inch and a half in length, not much pointed, and of an olive cast, much blotched with brown.
L. rulibundus. Gmel. Lath. who include under this de signation only the bird in its summer plumage : in its win ter attire, it is L. cinerarius, Gmel_: the young, before moulting, is the Sterna obscura, Lath. and after moulting-, in the winter-season, L. erythropus, of the same author. Laughing, Black headed, or Pewit Gull In Shetland Black-head, in Orkney Hooded Crow, and in some other places, Sea Crow, Mire Crow, or Pick Mire. Mantle clear cinereous, a large white space on the middle of the pri mary quills, length of the tarsus one inch and eight or nine lines. measures from fourteen to fifteen inches in length, and inhabits Europe, America, and the Bahama Islands, haunting the sea shore chiefly in winter, and salt lakes, rivers, and marshes, during the rest of the year It continues to breed in the same places in Shropshire that are mentioned by Plott, and at Planisburne in Northum berland, where they are reckoned of great use in clearing the surrounding lands of noxious insects, worms, and slugs. We learn, in fact, from Gerardin, that the young may be tamed without much difficulty, and kept in a garden, to check the multiplication of snails, &c.; and that it should be fed, during the winter months, with bread soaked in water cr milk. In some of the fens of Lincolnshire they arc plerriful in the bre ding season, inhabiting the most swampy parts, along with snipes, red-shanks, and ruffs, whose nests are intermingled among the high tufts of bog grass. The gulls trample down the grass on the tops of the tunips, and they form a flooring for their eggs, which are usually three in number and generally of a deep oh vaccous mottled with brown and dusky blotches ; but they are liable to vary On mese the fetuaies sit insulated about a foot or more above the surface of the water or swamp. Though thus seen at a considerable distance, they can equally observe the approach of an enemy, and are not easily shot. The young, in former times. wire served up at the tables of the great at their feasts of cere mony.