280 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. vu. 



I repeatedly saw the cock birds go through a fourth 

 performance, but was never near enough to photograph 

 them in the act. It invariably preceded the successful 

 consummation of the courtship : I never saw it on any 

 other occasion. The male bird, crouching in front 

 of the female, jerked his head upwards spasmodically, 

 while he uttered a high-pitched note, something Hke 

 the creaking of a gate-hinge, only more musical.^ The 

 hen birds treated the cocks with great indifference, 

 but I never saw them refuse a male bird which had been 

 through the performance just described. 



I am incHned to think that there must be a fifth phase 

 of courtship between those which I have here designated 

 three and four, but if there was I did not distinguish 

 it. The courting only went on in the forenoon. Later ^ 

 the birds scattered over the loch to sun themselves and 

 fish. The Common Gull is a confirmed egg-stealer, 

 and I several times saw birds smash and suck the eggs 

 of some of the Black-headed Gulls round them. 



The Common Gull was not very abundant in the 

 district. Besides the colony described above, we only 

 found one small breeding-station among some sand- 

 dunes four miles higher up the coast. There was, 

 however, a great colony of Herring- and I^esser Black- 

 backed Gulls on one island in one of the inland lochs, 

 and amongst these I distinguished some Common Gulls. 

 I was not able to land upon this island, however, and 

 elsewhere the Common Gull A\'as not nearly so abundant 

 a breeding species as the Herring-Gull. 



* I have seeii a young Herring-Gull go through an almost similair 

 performance in the late summer when begging for food from an adult. 



