46 Strong, Habits of the Herring Gull. [jan. 



cack, cack," and Herrick ^ used the following: " waw-wak-wak f 

 wak-wak! wak-wak! " Ward used the same symbols in his paper. 

 Another rendering 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." 

 He noted that these cries vary in the "intensity of their demon- 

 stration" depending on the contents of the nest (whether fresh 

 eggs, incubated eggs or young are present) the amount of previous 

 disturbance they have been subjected to, etc. 



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 

 excitement 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 or so." 



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 

 characteristically 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 onlj^ 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, ych, 

 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 to a score or more The bird stretches its 



> op. cit., p. 55. 



'Knight, O. W., op. cit.. p. 48. 



» op. cit., p. 55. 



4 op. cit., p. 130. 



