ZOOLOGICAL NOTES 255 



The Black-headed Gull as a Persecutor of the Lapwing. In 



his paper on the food of the Black-headed Gull (Larus ridibundus) 

 in the " Annals " for July last, Mr. T. G. Laidlaw refers to a trait 

 in the habits of this species, namely its persecution of the Lapwing 

 during the autumn and winter months, about which one would like 

 to know more. The points requiring elucidation are the length of 

 time this skua-like habit has been observed, and whether it is 

 widely practised, or as yet only in certain districts. If the habit 

 is of long standing and wide occurrence, it is certainly strange that 

 no allusion is made to it, so far as I know, in any of the many 

 works on British Birds. The manner in which the gulls wait upon 

 the Peewits and give chase the moment one of the latter unearths 

 a worm or grub, is well described by the Rev. H. N. Bonar in his 

 recent pamphlet on the Lapwing. 



Mr. Laidlaw says, " This is a very common habit of the gull in 

 this district," i.e., about Perth, I presume, and Mr. Bonar's observa- 

 tions were, one gathers, made in East Lothian within the last few 

 years. In the fields about Edinburgh I first took notice of this 

 skua-like action on the part of the Black-headed Gull about twenty 

 years ago there are definite entries in my note-books for fifteen 

 and I have often witnessed it in East Lothian during the same 

 period, and in Fife (near Falkland, etc.) within the last few years. 



In The Scotsman of 28th April 1905, I mentioned in reply to 

 a correspondent who attributed the habit to the Herring Gull in 

 Aberdeenshire, that in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh the Black- 

 headed Gull and, occasionally, the Common Gull (Larus canus) 

 were the species in which I had observed it. From a letter in The 

 Scotsman of i4th September, 1908, it would appear that at Muir 

 of Ord, East Ross, this trait has been observed in " the common 

 seagull " for the past three years. 



It would be interesting to hear if the habit has been noticed 

 in the west of Scotland and in England. WILLIAM EVANS, 

 Edinburgh. [On nth October I witnessed the habit at Stromness, 

 Orkney. W. E.G.] 



Arctic Skua choked by a Gurnard. A rather curious thing 

 came under my observation on 24th August while going along the 

 sea-shore at Heinish, Tiree. I found an Arctic Skua (Stercorarius 

 crepidatus], lying dead. The bird had been choked by a Gurnard 

 which it had been unable to swallow, and there were about two 

 inches of the tail-end of the fish sticking out of the bird's mouth, while 

 the body of the fish was firmly fixed in the bird's gullet, which was 

 extended to its utmost capacity. On pulling out the Gurnard I found 

 it about the size of a medium herring. P. ANDERSON, Tiree. 



Extension of the Nesting of the Woodcock in the Clyde 

 Area. There has been a wonderful addition to the numbers of 

 Woodcock breeding hereabouts. This district is very populous, 



