44 LLOYD S NATURAL HISTORY. 



" On a number of occasions I have mistaken the young of the 

 year of these Gulls for Plover or other Waders as they sought 

 their food along rocky beaches. In such cases they ran out 

 with each retiring wave and back before the incoming one, 

 with all the agility of a Wader. 



" Sabine's Gull has a single harsh, grating, but not loud note, 

 very similar to the grating cry of the Arctic Tern, but somewhat 

 harsher and shorter. When wounded and pursued or captured, 

 it utters the same note in a higher and louder key, with such a 

 grating file-like intensity that one feels like stopping one's ears. 

 It has the same peculiar clicking interruptions which are so 

 characteristic of the cry of a small bat held in the hand. A low, 

 chattering modification of this is heard at times as the birds 

 gather about the border of a favourite pool, or float gracefully 

 in company over the surface of some grassy-bordered pond. 

 The same note in a higher key serves as a note of alarm and 

 curiosity as they fly off overhead when disturbed. When one 

 of these Gulls is brought down, the others of its kind hover 

 over it, but show less devotion than is usually exhibited by the 

 Terns." 



Nest. The nests are described by Mr. Nelson as having been 

 found by him on an island near St. Michael's. " The island," 

 he says, " was very low, and the driest spots were but little 

 above the water. Built on the driest places were twenty-seven 

 nests, containing from one to two eggs each, and as many others 

 just ready for occupancy. Four or five nests were frequently 

 placed within two or three feet of each other. In about one 

 half of the cases the eggs were laid upon the few grass blades 

 the spot afforded, with no alteration save a slight depression 

 made by the bird's body. In the majority of the other nests 

 a few grass blades and stems had been arranged circularly 

 about the eggs, and in the remainder only enough material had 

 been added to afford the merest apology for a nest. 



Eggs. Two in number, of a very dark olive-brown with 

 reddish- brown spots, nowhere very distinct, the underlying grey 

 markings being still more obscure. In some examples the spots 

 are congregated near the large end of the egg, but, as a rule, 

 they are generally distributed over the whole surface. Axis, 

 j'6-r8inch; diam. 1*25-1*35. 



