THE BLACKHEADED-GULL 143 



pulling up water-plants for their nests. It usually either follows or 

 precedes an attack on another bird, and did so on all the occasions 

 on which I recorded it as occurring by itself. This was in April. 

 Once in April and once in June I saw it used conjointly with the 

 second or erect attitude. In the first case a pair stood side by side 

 with the beaks nearly touching the ground, and then suddenly and 

 simultaneously raised their necks and deflected their beaks. In the 

 next, a pair began with the neck-forward-and-beak-up movement, 

 passed to the erect posture, and one ended with the third or beak- 

 to-ground posture. In neither case was any hostility apparent. In 

 no case except this did I see the third movement used with the first. 

 As it usually precedes or follows an attack, it might be thought that, 

 like the first, it is a manifestation of pugnacity. But there is nothing 

 in it of the direct menace conveyed by the aggressive forward inclina- 

 tion of the neck and the insolent uptilted beak. Its real significance 

 has yet to be ascertained. It is worth adding that, though I watched 

 carefully, I did not see either this gesture or the other two performed 

 by any of the immature birds which crowded into the Scoulton gullery 

 in the evening. 



It must not be supposed that an attack by one gull upon another 

 is necessarily accompanied by gestures. In most cases, when a bird 

 has made up its mind to drive home the assault, it does so without 

 preliminaries. If the offender thinks it worth while to resist, both 

 birds either rise in the air fluttering, in which case I have not observed 

 that anything results but noise, or they scuffle and sprawl on the ground. 

 In the latter case there is little to be seen but a confusion of white wings. 

 On the only occasion on which I had a clear view, one of the com- 

 batants seized the other by the bill, and they continued to tug and 

 tumble for a few seconds till they had had enough. These squabbles 

 seemed to arise from the proximity of one bird to the nest of another. 

 Quite distinct from them are the more or less mock combats in the air, 

 marked chiefly by pretty upward sweeps and curves, the wings out- 

 spread and motionless, or nearly so, red legs dangling, red mouth wide 



