142 THE GULLS 



a somewhat unsatisfactorily worded record in my notebook, is that 

 the erect attitude was assumed independently on other occasions, 

 but in all the remaining fourteen instances which I took the trouble 

 to record exactly at the time of observation, it accompanied the first 

 " gesture " twelve times, and that next to be described once. In the 

 fourteenth instance all the three movements occurred together. 



On five of the occasions on which it accompanied the first 

 "gesture," the combined movement was intended to be hostile. In 

 one of these cases a bird, which was swimming on the water, first laid 

 its neck flat on the surface, and tilted up the beak, then shot the 

 neck up, deflected the beak, and part spread the wings. It thus 

 approached another bird, and on nearing it, again lowered the neck, 

 tilted up a beak of derision, and finally made a rush and a vicious 

 lunge, which the menaced party lost no time in avoiding. This attack 

 seemed to be entirely unprovoked, and had the appearance of being 

 merely an outlet for exuberant spirits. On the remaining occasions 

 on which the second or erect accompanied the first or neck-forward- 

 and-beak-up movement, there was no appearance of pugnacity. On 

 two of these occasions the attitudes were struck by birds that were 

 standing by themselves. In the other cases, two or three birds would 

 perform one or other or both of the movements, then merely desist 

 and look about as if nothing had occurred. I have described this set 

 of movements in some detail, because it illustrates the difficulty of 

 interpreting the avian language of gesture, and also suggests that the 

 avian mind is a more complex organ than is generally supposed. 



The third attitude is the only one with pretensions to beauty. In 

 its complete form the bird raises the white and grey wings and waves 

 them, spreads the tail into a white fan, and bending down the head, 

 almost, but not quite, touches the ground with the tip of the bill. 1 

 The tail is not invariably spread or the wings raised, or, when raised, 

 waved. The attitude is much like that of the birds when they are 



1 It may, of course, at times touch the ground, but on the one occasion on which I saw the 

 position of the beak quite clearly, it did not. 



