84 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS 



"In the fourth autumn the sub-apical patch on the first primary is larger, and 

 the quills, from the 5th upwards, are banded with black and tipped with white ; 

 tail feathers white, slightly vermiculated with brown; bill greenish yellow basally, 

 reddish-black at the angle. 



"At the moult of the fifth autumn, all brown markings are lost the primaries 

 have white tips, black bars and grey ' wedges,' though the proportion of dark 

 colouring in the quills is greater than it is in older birds." 



The food of the Herring Gull consists mainly of shore offal, Crustacea, and 

 young herrings, the shoals of which they follow in large crowds, dropping down 

 upon the fry and picking them up on the wing, or sometimes when swimming in 

 the midst of them. Their manoeuvres during such an occasion are denominated 

 " Play of Gulls," and to see them hurrying up from all parts, from their nests 

 or resting places, on the shrill call of the scouts that denotes discovery, is a 

 most interesting sight to witness. Mussels and other shell-fish also form a part 

 of their diet, sometimes bolted whole, but often the contents alone eaten after the 

 shell has been broken by dropping it on a rock. 



The Herring Gull is very confiding. One of the present writers when on a 

 dredging expedition off the Isle of Man from the Marine Biological Station 

 at Port Erin, during a short interval devoted to lunch, when the vessel 

 was hove-to, was charmed by the tameness of these Gulls, a crowd of which 

 soon collected round. The scraps we threw to them were nimbly picked up, 

 at first with some diffidence, with rather a hurried grab from the surface of the 

 sea, without the birds touching the water with more than the tips of their extended 

 limbs ; in a few minutes, however, perceiving our good- will, they came quite close 

 under the stern of our small steamer and fed without fear sometimes, indeed, 

 seizing the morsels thrown them before they reached the water, and often before 

 they were well clear of the ship's rail. 



Half-fledged Gulls are easily reared and domesticated, becoming so attached to 

 the place and people, where they have been brought up and kindly treated as to 

 remain there all their lives, without being pinioned and with no other tie than 

 that of affection. The late Mr. Bartlett has placed on record (Proceedings of the 

 Zoological Society, 1859) an interesting note on a Herring Gull, born in the Gardens 

 in 1857 (of parents also born in the year 1850 in the Gardens), where it remained 

 all the summer and autumn. "At the commencement of the winter he was in the 

 habit of flying about (not pinioned), and occasionally staying away a day or two, then 

 for a week or more, returning again generally about feeding time, and alighting 

 among the other Gulls, and feeding with them. This continued till the end of 

 March, 1858, at which time he disappeared. Nothing more was seen or heard of 



