HABITS OF THE HERRING GULL—STRONG. 491 
ery.” This consists of sharp and short notes in doublets or triplets 
which are produced with great variations in quality and in pitch. I 
was unable to determine whether these variations are produced by 
different individuals. They are striking and always to be noted when 
a colony of breeding gulls is disturbed. 
After trying various syllables to represent these sounds, I finally 
decided that the following is as satisfactory as anything I could 
devise, kek’-kek-kek, with an accent on the first syllable, the “e” 
being sounded as in deck. Often only two instead of three of these 
sounds are made in a group. These triplets or doublets are uttered 
in rapid succession as the bird flies about in the general panic. 
Mackay ' described the alarm cry with the syllables ‘‘cack, cack, 
cack,” and Herrick? used the following: ‘‘waw-wak-wak! wak-wak! 
wak-wak!”” Ward used the same symbols in his paper. Another ren- 
dering was made by Knight* as follows: ‘‘ha-ha-ha” or another 
alarm cry as follows: ‘‘qu-e-e-e-a-h que-e-e-e-a-h.” 
The alarm cry may be high and shrill or rather low with ‘‘chest 
tone’ quality. Intermediate variations also occur. As the dis- 
turbance in a gull colony subsides, these notes are uttered less and 
less frequently, and the lower notes predominate more as the excite- 
ment decreases. The cries also become less loud and incisive, until, 
as Herrick * has expressed it, ‘‘Finally ceasing like a clock running 
down, the mandibles continue to work with no sound for a moment 
Gro. 
I have often heard these sounds made when the birds were appar- 
ently simply solicitous or slightly anxious concerning their eggs or 
young. ‘Thus hours after the gulls had settled down to apparently 
normal activities about my tent, single birds would occasionally 
fly overhead making the alarm cry. At such times the cry is charac- 
teristically low and not at all shrill. 
3. The ‘‘challenge.’’—This was for me the most interesting vocal 
performance, though it is less often mentioned by other writers. 
Herrick describes a ‘‘scream of defiance’’ and has a photo showing 
a bird making this noise. Ward is the only writer to my knowledge 
who has described this performance in any detail, and his interesting 
account follows. 
Frequently, the general clamor would be dominated by a peculiar cry which I put 
into words as “yeh, yeh, yeh,’’ rapidly repeated and increasing in vehemence to the 
utmost capabilities of the gull, when it quickly ceased. Usually, a few seconds 
after one began another joined, until often there were a half dozen birds screeching 
at once, and occasionally, this number would be increased toa scoreormore * * * 
The bird stretches its neck downward, opens its bill widely and begins the call, then 
with a jerky sort of start it stiffly raises its outstretched neck, usually to an angle of 
about 45°. Generally, almost invariably, the head, neck, body and tail are all held 
10p. cit., p. 226. 4 Op. cit., p. 55. 
2Op. cit., p. 55. 5 Op. cit., p. 130. 
3 Knight, O. W., op. cit., p. 48. 
