158 THE GULLS 



Though gulls, as already noted in the case of the blackhead, 

 frequently limit the expression of their pugnacity to mere menace, 

 serious fights do occur not infrequently. Mr. Selous, in the chapter 

 above mentioned, gives instances that show something of the method 

 of combat. In one instance the combatants were two blackbacks 

 (species not stated), who fought beneath a living canopy formed by a 

 whirling crowd of interested fellow-gulls. One stood on the defensive, 

 "beating or trying to beat off with wings and beak the continual 

 eager rushes of his assailant. Many times they closed and went 

 struggling and flapping over the ground, attended all the time by gulls 

 in the air and gulls walking about or near them." The bird on the 

 defensive "finally beat off its assailant, who now took to the air. 

 Sweeping backwards and forwards above the hated one, it made each 

 time that it passed a little drop down upon it with dangling legs, and 

 delivered, or tried to deliver, a blow with the feet, a strategy which the 

 other met by springing up and striking with the beak." l The close 

 interest taken by their fellows in the fight illustrates a fact frequently 

 observed in bird-life. This interest is by no means confined to 

 individuals of the same species as the combatants. I have observed 

 a duel between two robins followed with the closest attention by a 

 hen-sparrow, to whom the proceeding appeared to afford unbounded 

 entertainment, judging from her loud and excited chuckles. Many 

 such instances might be quoted. 2 



In another instance the opponents, two herring-gulls, fought in 

 the manner already noted in the case of the blackheaded species 

 (p. 143). Each seized the other by the beak, and tugged, the one or 

 the other being dragged about, a process which it sought to resist by 

 spreading its wings and exerting pressure with them upon the ground. 



1 Bird Watching, p. 107. 



1 The interest taken by birds in the quarrels of their fellows may be the possible explana- 

 tion of a curious incident related by C. Rubow in his Life of the Common-gull (pages unnum- 

 bered). He states that he saw one of a colony of common-gulls "sentenced to death and 

 executed by its comrades." It was certainly killed, but only one wound was found upon the 

 body, and that " a deadly one in the back of the neck." It was, therefore, apparently attacked 

 by one bird only. But whatever be the explanation, the view that the bird's death was due to 

 a judicial execution is not proved by the evidence given. 



