GAVIM. ( 279 ) LARID^. 



THE HERRING GULL. 



GULL MAW, WILLIE GOW, CAT GULL, SILVERY GULL. 



Larus argentatus. 

 %\)t (Bull Sl^atD, %\)Z Common (15ulU 



Bold-wingM sea-bird! why so lonely straying 



Far from thy rocky home, 

 Round which the ivild sea-breezes still are playing 



Above the ocean foam ? 



Say ! dost thou hail from yonder cliffs so hoary — 



From yon rude caverned halls. 

 Where strong Fast Castle, famed in olden story. 



Still lifts its ruined walls f 



Walter Chisholm.i 



This Gull is more plentiful on the sea-coast of Berwickshire 

 than any other kind, and is found there at all seasons of the 

 year. It is, however, to be seen in the greatest numbers 

 about St. Abb's Head, where its harsh, cackling cries fill 

 the air during the breeding season.^ 



Proceeding round the sea-coast from Lamberton on the 

 eastern boundary of the county to the Cove, towards Cock- 

 burnspath on the western limit, the first breeding station of the 



1 Mr. Walter Chisholni in his boyhood resided for some years at the upland 

 farm of Dowlaw, near Fast Castle, and here, at the early age of twenty-one, he 

 died on the 1st of October 1877. His poems, edited by Mr. William Cairns, 

 formerly of Oldcambns, are published by Mr. Thin, Edinburgh. 



2 Mr. Archibald Hepburn, in his " Notes on Birds found at St. Abb's Head," 

 Hist. Ber. Nat. Club., vol. iii. pp. 74, 75, says, with regard to the cries of the 

 Herring Gull: "their hoarse guttural cackle resembling Kaak-ka-kaak, varied 

 only by a sharp loud scream like ' Pee-ul,' filled the air." Mr. Hardy, in his MS. 

 Notes, compares the cries of some Gulls of this kind, which he heard at Fast Castle 

 on the 12th of June 1877, to those of a cat. 



