COMMON, HERRING, AND BLACKBACKED-GULLS 157 



and again depressing the heads with them thus united as do they. 

 After this they toss up their heads into the air, and open and close 

 their beaks once or twice in a manner almost too soft to be called a 

 snap. Sometimes they will just drop their heads and raise them again 

 quickly, without making much action with the bills. This is dalliance, 

 and between each little bout of it the two will make little fidgety, 

 more-awaiting steps, close about one another. Always, however, or 

 almost always, one of the birds and this one I take to be the female 

 is more eager, has a more soliciting manner and tender begging look 

 than the other. It is she who, as a rule, commences and draws the 

 male bird on. She looks fondly up at him, and raising her bill to his, 

 as though beseeching a kiss, just touches with it, in raising, the 

 feathers of his throat an action light but full of endearment. And in 

 every way she shows herself the most desirous, and, in fact, so worries 

 and pesters the poor male gull that often, to avoid her importunities, 

 he flies away." 1 The behaviour of the female described in the last 

 few lines is not unlike that of the blackheaded-gull when trying to 

 persuade her mate to produce from his inside the meal she expects ; 

 and the male blackhead, when pestered, often wears just the same 

 worried look. These fondling movements of the birds, watched by 

 Mr. Selous, if not immediately prompted by desire for food, may 

 have had their origin in the same. An action first used for one 

 purpose may well come to be used for another quite different. 



A habit frequently observed among the larger gulls, including 

 the blackbacked and herring, if not the common species, is that of 

 suddenly stretching forward the neck, in a somewhat regurgitative 

 manner, opening wide the beak, and uttering a wild exultant scream. 

 Also no doubt common to all is the menacing gesture, already 

 described in the case of the blackhead (p. 140), which takes the 

 form of lowering the neck and head, and giving to the beak an 

 insulting upward tilt. I have seen it made by an immature herring- 

 gull in St. James's Park. 



1 Bird Watching, p. 111. 



