a large number of snow-white birds with dark blue bills
and black legs settle down in the neighbourhood in order that they
may get a portion of the spoil. They belong to the third kind of
gull common in the north, _ismaosen_, the ivory gull (_Larus
eburneus_, Gmel.).

[Illustration: BREEDING-PLACE FOR GLAUCOUS GULLS. Borgmaestareport
on Bear Island, after a midnight photograph taken by the Author
on the 18th-19th June, 1864. ]

In disposition and mode of life these gulls differ much from each
other. The glaucous gull is sufficiently strong to be able to defend
its eggs and young against the attack of the mountain fox. It
therefore breeds commonly on the summits of easily accessible small
cliffs, hillocks or heaps of stones, preferably in the neighbourhood
of "loomeries" or on fowl-islands, where the young of the
neighbouring birds offer an opportunity for prey and hunting during
the season when its own young are being fed. Sometimes, as for
instance at Brandywine Bay on Spitzbergen, the glaucous gull breeds
in great flocks on the ledges of steep fell-sides, right in the
midst of Bruennich's guillemots. On Bear Island I have seen it hatch
on the very beach, at a place, for instance, under the arch of a
waterfall leaping down from a precipitous cliff. The nests, which,
to judge from the quantity of birds' dung in their neighbourhood,
are used for a long succession of years, are placed in a depression
in the rock or the ground, and lined with a little straw or a
feather or two. The number of the eggs is three or four. After
boiling they show a jellylike, half transparent white, and a reddish
yellow, and are exceedingly delicious. The young birds have white
flesh, resembling chicken. The burgomaster is common everywhere
along the coasts of Novaya Zemlya and Spitzbergen. Yet I have not
seen the nest of this gull on the north coast of North East Land or
on the Seven Islands.

[Illustration: A. THE KITTIWAKE B. THE IVORY GULL. Swedish, Kryckia.
(Larus tridactylus, L.) Swedish, Ismaos (Larus eburneus, L.) ]

Still more common than the glaucous gull in the lands of the High
North is _kryckian_, the kittiwake. It is met with far out at sea,
where it accompanies the vessel whole days, circling round the tops
of the masts, and sometimes--according to the statements of the
walrus-hunters, when a storm is approaching--pecking at the points
of the pendant. When the vessel is in harbour, the kittiwakes
commonly gather round it t