170 THE GULLS 



themselves instead of continuing to beg for their food. I used to 

 watch a small company of herring-gulls that took up their winter 

 quarters in St. James's Park. Near them were four or five immature 

 birds of the same species, who would gladly have joined their elders 

 had they been permitted to do so. But no sooner did one of them 

 make advances than an old bird would begin to edge towards him with 

 an air of meditative detachment from mundane affairs that might well 

 have deceived the proposed victim had he not already been taught its 

 meaning by experience. But such is the fascination exercised by 

 exclusiveness, that the young gull would persist in staying up to the 

 moment that the approaching bill was suddenly aimed at him like a 

 dagger, and he persisted in returning. The only time he actively 

 resented this treatment was at meal-time ; then his protests were 

 wide-beaked and his conduct irreverent. 



There is evidence to show that, as autumn draws on to winter, all 

 four species make fairly general but irregular southward movements, 

 which may or may not extend beyond our shores. For instance, a 

 young herring-gull ringed in the summer in Aberdeenshire, was recap- 

 tured on January 30 near Manchester. At an earlier date, October 

 3, another was caught farther south, at Hunstanton, Norfolk, while a 

 third was still at Aberdeen on November 15. About the same period 

 a young lesser blackbacked-gull, ringed at the Fames in June, was 

 taken as far south as Portugal. The few exact facts that we possess 

 about these movements are due to the modern practice of placing 

 rings on the legs of birds at the breeding-place ; they suffice to 

 assure us that exceedingly interesting results may be expected in 

 the future. 



