HERRING GULL. 101 



squeaked on being caught, and Mr. Kemp, who was standing 

 close by, looked immediately, and had scarcely time to see it 

 suddenly disappear head foremost, a rule which he had strictly 

 observed, with both the living and the dead.' Another, kept 

 by the same gentleman, devoured successively two clutches of 

 young ducks; the first nine in number, and the second five. 



The note is very loud and piercing, and is frequently 

 repeated in the spring. 



The Herring Gull makes a nest of dry grass and sea-weedi 

 on the ledges and small grassy or stony spaces that occur 

 along the side of a cliff, and towards the top. 



Great numbers of these birds breed together, and in close 

 neighbourhood also with other species. 



The eggs are two, or more properly three, in number- 

 They are of a light olive brown colour, spotted over with 

 darker brown of two shades; some deep olive green, blotted 

 over with blackish brown. They are laid about the middle of 

 May, and the young take wing about the 20th. of July. 



The male bird keeps watch about the female when sitting,, 

 and comes to her assistance and defence if occasion requires. 



Male; weight, from thirty to thirty-three ounces;, length, 

 up to two feet and half an inch; bill, pale dull yellow, the 

 angle of the lower one dark orange red; iris, pale yellow, the 

 edges of the eyelids orange red. Head on the crown, which 

 in winter is streaked with greyish brown, neck, and nape, white; 

 shin, throat, and breast, white; back, delicate bluish grey. 



The wings expand to the width of four feet four inches; 

 greater wing coverts, fine grey, the tips white; lesser wing 

 coverts, fine grey; primaries, mostly black on the outer webs 

 of the two first, the inner webs grey on the half towards 

 the base; the first has a rounded triangular-shaped white mark 

 at the end,, the second and third also, but less in size. Selby 

 gives the following description of these feathers: 'The six 

 greater quills crossed by a black bar, which in the first occupies 

 three fourths of the feather, but becomes rapidly narrower 

 through the rest, and is scarcely an inch broad upon the 

 sixth; the first quill with a white tip, marked with a small 

 black spot on each web near the extreme point, the second 

 with two spots on each side of the shaft, its tips, and those 

 of the next four quills being white; the colour of the shaft 

 corresponds with the part of the feather adjoining it.' 

 Secondaries and tertiaries, tipped with white; greater and 

 lesser under wing coverts, white. Tail, white; upper tail 



