THE SHORE BIRDS. 



THE term " Shore Birds " simply means those birds which are 

 found on the shore, or on the sea close to the shore. If I did 

 not explain the above, the reader might wonder at the curious 

 conglomeration of ducks, divers, gulls and waders, or, as the 

 latter are commonly called, "shore birds" which come under the 

 above heading. 



THE GREATER 



BLACK BACKED 



GULL. 



Lams marinas. 



By no means so common as some of the other species 

 of laridae, but amongst the huge flocks of these fowl, 

 which may be seen every day on the Formby shore, 

 are always a few " Greater Black Backs," standing out 

 prominently amongst their smaller and less boldly 

 marked brethren.* 



"The following is a note of my father's, written several years ago. Referring to a every fine specimen 

 which we have stuffed, he says : " This is certainly the larger I have ever seen, and the examples even in 



the Britith Museum are smaller than the Formby bird 1 remember once falling in with one, 



which had been wounded, one evening by the sea shore. I thought I would take him home and make 

 a pet of him in place of my black guillemot, which had lately succumbed to some internal injury. I 

 caught him and tied my handkerchief around his breast and wings, and, carrying him under my arm, set out 

 cheerfully for home. But I had not gone far before my hand, in which I carried my walking stick attracted 

 his attention, and, with a vigorous peck, he took out a mouthful of epidermis and cuticle. I now began 

 to think I had reckoned without my host. A happy thought then occurred to me. I would turn his head 

 behind. This plan I adopted for some time with success, but going down a steep sandhill, I was rash 

 enough to look around to see how he was going on. I was very disagreeably reminded of his existence, 

 for turning his flexible neck rapidly upwards, he stabbed me deliberately under the chin ! Again I 

 bled wound No. 2 ! After this 1 began to feel sorry I had ever taken him in hand at all, and at length I 

 decided to release him, for I felt that our natures were very dissimilar." 



