HERRING GULL. 81

Gull, on snowy wing, wheels high in the blue. But the Black-back can spread its five feet of white pinions and sweep far over the sea. Then ’its movements are majestic and grand, as with keen eye it watches for the larger game of the deep. Both this bird and the Herring Gull, feed much on mollusca, breaking such strong shells as those of Mattra solz‘dz'ssz'ma with their bills.

The Herring Gull is the bird of the harbor and the bay, its snowy pinions forever coursing over the dappling blue, or dipping lightly into its foam. It may be found wandering far in the lonely Gulf, seeking adventurously for the great schools of food fish, and it is perfectly at home in the busiest sea—ports, gleaning the offal of fishing piers and wharfs. We will even see it contending for a meal off a carcass, on the ice, in mid—winter, with a group of hungry crows. ’l‘he Herring Gull is withal a tyrant in his own field, robbing the smaller gulls, when they have made a catch, or pirating from a fleet of industrious ducks, as they bring their game to the surface. Both these large Gulls go away to lonely islands and reefs for their nesting,

depostting their eggs on the naked sand, where