° 1914 J Strong, Habits of the Herring Gull. 47 



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 forty-five degrees. Generally, almost invari- 

 ably, the head, neck, body and tail are all held in practically the 

 same line and in a remarkably stiff manner. The whole perform- 

 ance is so machine like in its rigidity and precision of motion that 

 the gulls appear like a lot of automatons." I have adopted Ward's 

 term "the challenge" for this cry. 



I made a number of records of the performance, and I add a few 

 details to Ward's description. Just before the head is raised a single 

 note which may be of appreciable duration is often made. This 

 I tried to represent in my notes by the syllable "keee." It is fol- 

 lowed by a series of high and shrill notes as described by W'ard. 

 I finally settled on the following representation in my notes: 

 " keee, kee' ek, kee' ek, kee' ek, kee' ek, kee' ek, etc." The e in kee 

 is sounded as in see and this syllable is accented. The first note is 

 longer. Although this noise seemed to take more time, I found on 

 using a watch that it occupies only a few seconds. The perform- 

 ance, may, however, be repeated more than once during the course 

 of a few minutes, when other gulls are "challenging." 



In my experience the "challenge" call is usually made by a 

 bird on or about the ground, but I have often heard swimming or 

 flying birds make this noise. All of these situations are shown in 

 Plate IX where a number of birds are seen in the performance. 

 The three birds on land at the left and in front, give the best idea 

 of the usual position. 



Good pictures of gulls indulging in the "challenge" appear in 

 both Herrick's and Ward's accounts of the habits of these birds. 



Concerning the significance of the "challenge" performance, 

 little more than opinions can be offered. It may sometimes be 

 made when other individuals are frantically indulging in the 

 "alarm cry." I have noted individuals going through this per- 

 formance while flying about in the general panic which took place 

 when I was landing at an island where gulls were breeding. This 

 behavior often seems to indicate a belligerent attitude and it then 

 well deserves the term "defiance cry" or "challenge." My ob- 

 servations lead me to agree with Ward in saying " Anything that 

 startles the gull without producing a panic, or the proximity of 



