over him at a safe distance, not sailing so much as moving to either side
with continued flappings. To secure the fishes on which it more usually
preys, it sweeps downwards with velocity, and as it glides over the spot,
picks up its prey with its bill. If the fish be small, the Gull swallows it
on wing, but if large, it either alights on the water, or flies to the nearest
shore to devour it.
Although a comparatively silent bird for three-fourths of the year,
the Great Black-backed Gull becomes very noisy at the approach of the
breeding season, and continues so until the young are well fledged, after
which it resumes its silence. Its common notes, when it is interrupted or
surprised, sound like each, cack, cade. While courting, they are softer
and more lengthened, and resemble the syllables cazvah, which are often
repeated as it sails in circles or otherwise, within view of its mate or its
place of abode.
This species walks well, moving firmly and with an air of importance.
On the water it swims lightly but slowly, and may soon be overtaken by
a boat. It has no power of diving, although at times, when searching
for food along the shores, it will enter the water on seeing a crab or a
lobster, to seize it, in which it at times succeeds. I saw one at Labrador
plunge after a large crab in about two feet of water, when, after
a tug, it hauled it ashore, where it devoured it in my sight. I watched
its movements with a glass, and could easily observe how it tore the crab
to pieces, swallowed its body, leaving the shell and the claws, after which
it flew off to its young and disgorged before them.
It is extremely voracious, and devours all sorts of food excepting vegetables,
even the most putrid carrion, but prefers fresh fish, young birds,
or small quadrupeds, whenever they can be procured. It sucks the eggs
of every bird it can find, thus destroying great numbers of them, as well
as the parents, if weak or helpless. I have frequently seen these Gulls
attack a flock of young Ducks while swimming beside their mother, when
the latter, if small, would have to take to wing, and the former would all
dive, but were often caught on rising to the surface, unless they happened
to be among rushes. The Eider Duck is the only one of the tribe that
risks her life, on such occasions, to save that of her young. She will frequently
rise from the water, as her brood disappear beneath, and keep
the Gull at bay, or harass it until her little ones are safe under some
shelving rocks, when she flies off in another direction, leaving the enemy
to digest his disappointment. But while the poor Duck is sitting on her
eggs in any open situation, the marauder assails her, and forces her off,
when he sucks the eggs in her very sight. Young Grous are also the
prey of this Gull, which chases them over the moss-covered rocks, and
devours them before their parents. It follows the shoals of fishes for
hours at a time, and usually with great success. On the coast of Labrador,
I frequently saw these birds seize flounders on the edges of the shallows
; they often attempted to swallow them whole, but, finding this impracticable,
removed to some rock, beat them, and tore them to pieces.
They appear to digest feathers, bones, and other hard substances with
ease, seldom disgorging their food, unless for the purpose of feeding their
young or mates, or when wounded and approached by man, or when pursued
by some bird of greater power. While at Boston in Massachusetts,
one cold winter morning, I saw one of these Gulls take up an eel, about
fifteen or eighteen inches in length, from a mud bank. The Gull rose
with difficulty, and after some trouble managed to gulp the head of the
fish, and flew towards the shore with it, when a White-headed Eagle
made its appearance, and soon overtook the Gull, which reluctantly gave
up the eel, on which the Eagle glided towards it, and, seizing it with its
talons, before it reached the water, carried it off.
This Gull is excessively shy and vigilant, so that even at Labrador
we found it difficult to procure it, nor did we succeed in obtaining more
than about a dozen old birds, and that only by stratagem. They watched
our movements with so much care as never to fly past a rock behind which
one of the party might be likely to lie concealed. None were shot near
the nests when they were sitting on their eggs, and only one female attempted
to rescue her young, and was shot as she accidentally flew within
distance. The time to surprise them was during violent gales, for then
they flew close to the tops of the highest rocks, where we took care to conceal
ourselves for the purpose. When we approached the rocky islets on
which they bred, they left the place as soon as they became aware of our
intentions, cackled and barked loudly, and when we returned, followed us
at a distance more than a mile.
They begin to moult early in July. In the beginning of August the
young were seen searching for food by themselves, and even far apart.
By the 12th of that month they had all left Labrador. We saw them
afterwards along the coast of Newfoundland, and while crossing the Gulf
of St Lawrence, and found them over the bays of Nova Scotia, as we proceeded
southward. When old, their flesh is tough and unfit for food.