160 THE GULLS 



Those of the herring and blackbacked-gulls resemble each other 

 closely, though by no means so closely that they cannot be differen- 

 tiated. They have all been syllabled as ha ! ha ! ha ! or ha ! ha ! ha ! 

 ha! also in the case of the lesser blackbacked and herring as a 

 repetition of ags or cogs and the like, and in the case of the greater 

 blackback as og ! or ugh ! Heard closely, the laugh, or ha ! ha ! ha ! 

 resolves itself for me, in the case of the herring and lesser blackback, 

 into quow ! or ow ! Uttered by the latter species, it sounds somewhat 

 like the gasp made by a person who has received a sudden blow in the 

 wind. It is sometimes slightly dissyllabic, and may perhaps be described 

 as sharper and more explosive than the corresponding note of the 

 herring-gull. When excited, both species utter the notes in rapid 

 succession, and may bring them to a climax, when at close quarters, with 

 a loud harsh scream. Usually the ow ! or quow ! is uttered three or four 

 times. The corresponding note of the great blackback is described by 

 Lord Lilford as " a sharp hoarse bark, and has a peculiar character 

 about it that distinguishes this from all other British gulls." 1 That 

 these notes are used only to indicate alarm is improbable. More 

 information as to specific occasions on which they are heard has yet to 

 be collected. 



Considerable ingenuity has been exercised in figuring what is, 

 with the note just described, the chief utterance of the four species. 

 It is heard usually when the birds are on the wing, and is perhaps 

 a call-note, and an expression of well-being. The most exact of the 

 attempts to represent that of the common-gull is by a German 

 ornithologist, J. Rohweder, and it illustrates admirably the difficulty 

 attendant on the use of the ordinary or nomic spelling. The render- 

 ing is gnjiidh, a high pitched nasalised note, with but slight stress 

 on the last syllable. 2 I venture to believe that to those who 

 have not heard the sound itself, the symbol is likely to give but a 

 dim idea of the exact rendering, and it will, no doubt, be differently 



1 Birds of Northamptonshire, ii. 259. 



2 Naumann, Vogel Mitteleuropas, xi. 228 : " hoch und wie einer Art nasaler Dampfung 

 ynjiiah." 



