328 BRITISH BIRDS. 



and few sights are more interesting than to watch them in a fluttering 

 throng, rising and descending, turning and twisting like huge animated 

 snowflakes. Every scrap of offal that is thrown overboard, especially 

 the small fish, is eagerly pounced upon and secured, often before it 

 reaches the water. The Herring- Gull is almost omnivorous in its diet. It 

 greedily feeds on carrion, and, like the Hoodie and the Raven, it rarely 

 fails to put in an appearance at a decaying carcass of a sheep or a horse, 

 when near the coast, to share the prize. It eats garbage and ofi'al of aL 

 kinds, and is a determined robber of eggs, being only rivalled in this 

 respect by the hated '' Farspach,^^ as the Great Black-backed Gull is called 

 in the Hebrides. Its food is also composed of small fish, crustaceans, 

 mollusks (which it sometimes breaks by dropping them from a considerable 

 height on the rocks), and the numerous marine animals cast up by the 

 tide. In sowing-time it not only follows the plough for worms, grubs, 

 and insectSj but it eats the scattered seed, and also repairs to the fields in 

 harvest to pick up the grain. It is said to frequent the places where 

 the fishermen spread their nets, to pick out of the meshes the numerous 

 small marine creatures that are entangled. It is rather pugnacious when 

 feeding, and often compels the Crows, Ravens, or smaller Gulls to yield 

 up a tempting morsel. 



The call-note of the Herring- Gull resembles the syllables hd-hd-hd, or 

 more exactly hdn-hdn-hdn ; the alarm-note resembles the syllables ky-eok, 

 pronounced in a guttural manner, and when the bird is unusually excited 

 its note is rapidly repeated and sounds like kdk-dk-dk. 



At the end of April the Herring-Gull returns to its accustomed 

 breeding-place, and nest-building commences at once, the eggs being laid 

 early in May. Fresh eggs may be obtained through this month. The 

 Herring-Gull breeds both on lofty inaccessible cliffs as well as on flat 

 ground. Generally the latter situation is only chosen on islands or in 

 little-frequented districts. A few pairs of Herring-Gulls generally breed 

 in most of the colonies of Lesser Black-backed Gulls ; sometimes only 

 one or two pairs nest together, but occasionally the colony is large. It 

 jn'cfcrs to build its nest on the grassy ledges when a cliff is selected ; but 

 when on low islands it either builds in a hollow in the ground, in a 

 crevice of a rock, or on the grass close to the edge of the cliffs. The 

 nests are often large bulky structures, made of tufts of half-dry 

 grass and masses of seaweed, and lined with fine grass and a few straws 

 or stalks of the sea-campion. Sometimes they are very slight — mere 

 hollows, scantily lined with dry grass. The nests are often placed close 

 together. In America the Herring-Gull frequently makes its nest in 

 trees. In 1833 Audubon found it breeding on an island in the Bay of 

 Fundy, making its nest in the almost inaccessible spruce-trees ; and nearly 

 twenty years later Brewer confirmed the observation. Audubon was told 



