44 MUTTON BIRDS 



CHAPTER VI. 

 THE BLACK-BACKED GULL. 



[N the rocks at the base of the red cliffs 

 of Herekopere many Gulls were 

 breeding during the last week of 

 November. Skuas possessed the 

 northern heights, Gulls the western 

 shore, and each was careful in the matter of 

 trespass, the Skuas keeping away from the west 

 and the Gulls avoiding the north end of the 

 island. 



Throughout the southern part of New Zea- 

 land, on open river beds, almost from 

 source to sea, this Gull is plentiful. In the 

 North Island, he frequents estuaries, lagoons, 

 and coasts, is to be seen at nil the shipping ports, 

 and, indeed should be known even to the most 

 unobservant. 



I have got his nest on tidal drift, on edges of 

 cliffs and promontories, on bare rock; and have 

 seen the eggs placed on drift sand without even 

 a vestige of nesting material. This last clutch 

 of eggs, however, was probably laid after an 

 accident to an earlier lot. 



On the naked Porangahau beach, where my 

 earliest attentions had been paid to this Gull, 

 I had found him wary and deeply suspicious. 

 On Herekopere he was as shy; but here it was 



