Page:The birds of America, volume 7.djvu/257

Rh abated, when they went off to sea, and I saw no more of them until we readied St. George's Bay in Newfoundland.

There, on a squally afternoon, two or three of them were observed flying around, but keeping at such a distance that we could not shoot any of them. The following day, after setting sail, we encountered a heavy gale, which, although foretold by me from the appearance of the birds in the harbour, our good captain would not believe as likely to happen. We were obliged to lie-to, and were tossed about for three nights and clays, but escaped with little other damage than the loss of a pet Gull, which was washed overboard.

On our return to Eastport, Captain Emeky told me that he had seen a great number of these Jagers near Cape Sable; and at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, I was assured that they breed on Sable Island, which is sixty or seventy miles distant from the coast. I never observed one of these birds along the shores of the United States, although some of the genus go as far south in winter as the Gulf of Mexico.

Nothing is known with certainty respecting the changes which this species undergoes as it advances toward maturity. Captain James Clark Ross, R. N., has informed me that a nest containing two eggs was found by him near Fury Point, close by the edge of a small lake. I have no doubt that this bird breeds in Labrador, as the female which I obtained in July appeared as if it had young at the time.

My friend Mr. Selby states that he is not aware that an adult bird has yet been killed in Britain. M. Temminck says it forms a rude nest of grass and moss, which is placed on a tuft in the marshes, or on a rock, and lays two or three very pointed eggs, of a greyish-olive colour, marked with a few blackish spots. Dr. Richardson has the following notice respecting it in the Fauna Boreali-Americana: — "The Pomarine Jager or Gull-hunter is not uncommon in the Arctic seas and northern outlets of Hudson's Bay, where it subsists on putrid fish and other animal substances thrown up by the sea, and also on the matters which the Gulls disgorge when pursued by it. It retires from the north in the winter, and makes its first appearance at Hudson's Bay in May, coming in from seaward."

Lestris pomarina, Bonap. Syn., p. 364.

Lestris pomarina, Pomarine Jager, Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 429. Pomarine Jager, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 315.

Pomarine Jager, Lestris pomarinus, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iii. p. 396; vol. v. p. 643. Female, 20J, 48.

From Massachusetts northward. Seen in Labrador. Breeds in high northern latitudes.

Adult Female.