HERRING-GULL 427 



and shell-fish. The method frequently adopted for obtain- 

 ing a meal of cockles, mussels, whelks, and other molluscs, 

 is singularly interesting. Unable to pierce the shell, it 

 holds it in its beak, and ascends into the air to a- height 

 of about fifty yards. The prey is then suddenly released, 

 the bird swooping after it so swiftly, that it is snatched up 

 the very instant it touches the ground. If the shell be not 

 broken the performance is repeated, but as it is generally 

 dropped on a stony beach the contents are secured after 

 one or two trials. For many years I have witnessed this 

 habit of the Herring-Gull along the shores of Dublin Bay ; 

 I have seen a line of a dozen or more of these birds stationed 

 at regular intervals of about a hundred yards from one 

 another, all busily ' shell dropping.' 



Mr. A. Williams writes me that he once saw a Herring- 

 Gull capture a rat on the shore, carry it off by the tail and 

 drop it from such a height on to rocks that it was disabled, 

 easily secured, and torn to pieces. 



Immense shoals of Herring- and other fry are rapidly 

 thinned out, as bird after bird, attracted by the screeches of 

 their comrades, flock to the spot, and with all haste swoop 

 to the water, demolishing hundreds of their silvery prey in 

 a very short time. The fields are also visited, the plough 

 is followed, and grubs, worms, and grain, 1 are eaten. Offal, 

 including carrion, is as dainty diet to this voracious bird. 

 Like other large Gulls its predatory habits render it an 

 enemy to the smaller land-birds, which, as they flit over 

 the sea, often partially exhausted from migration, are cap- 

 tured and engulphed, feathers and all. 



Again, fledglings, baby-rabbits, and the eggs of other 

 sea-fowl are habitually carried off and devoured in large num- 

 bers by this thieving bird. 



Voice. The two-syllabled wailing note is heard for the 

 most part from the cliffs during the nesting-season, but the 

 birds are also noisy when competing with one another for 

 offal or living fish in the water. The voice, when first 

 sounded, is prolonged and mournful, but when oft repeated 

 it becomes shorter and sharper. Thus the note of an angry 



1 Mr. A. Williams has observed Herring-Gulls " engaged in tearing 

 off the grains of ripe oats from the stalks, and eagerly devouring them." 

 .... On examining the ejected pellets he found them to be composed 

 of " the broken-up outer covering of oat grains, closely packed together " 

 (' Irish Naturalist,' 1905, p. 71). 



