GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL
47. Larus marinas. 29 in.
Largest and most powerful of our gulls. Adults in summer have the head, tail and underparts white, back slaty black, eyes and bill yellow, with a red spot near the tip of the lower mandible; feet flesh color; primaries tipped with white. In winter, the head is streaked with dusky. Young birds are mottled with dusky brown above, and streaked with the same below. These birds are very rapacious, and besides feeding upon refuse, fish and shellfish, devour, during the summer season, a great many eggs and young of other sea birds; this habit is common to nearly all the larger gulls.
Notes.—A laughing “ha-ha” and a harsh “keouw.”
Nest.—Either hollows on the ground or masses of weeds and drift, hollowed out to receive the three grayish brown eggs, spotted with blackish and lilac (3. × 2.15).
Range.—These gulls breed from Newfoundland northward, being most abundant on the Labrador coast. In winter they are found as far south as the Carolinas, usually in company with [Herring Gulls].
