Birds. • 9677 



common gull, lesser blackbacked, herring and great blackbacked gulls 

 were all to be found breeding there in some numbers. I was not a 

 little disappointed, therefore, to see but two species out of the five 

 named. Although we kept a good look out along the cliffs between 

 St. Aldham's Head and WeyniouUi we saw only herring gulls, which 

 were very common, and a few great blackbacked gulls. 1 was puzzled 

 to account for the absence of the others, after such positive evidence 

 of their frequenting this coast, but it is possible that they migrate to 

 different quarters in the winter, and had not returned to their Vjreeding'- 

 station before I left on the 31st of May.* If this hypothesis be correct, 

 it is remarkable that the great blackbacked gulls should have eggs and 

 the herring gulls young before the kittiwake, common gull and lesser 

 blackbacked gull had even commenced to nest. Both the great black- 

 backed and herring gulls had eggs on the 15th of May; on the 28th 

 of that month I saw young birds in a nest of the latter species, and the 

 following day took from another nest of the same species a young 

 bird, which had probably been hatched four or five days. Their food 

 appears to be young periwinkles and various species of Helix. It 

 was a noticeable fact that, although we saw several hundred herring 

 gulls, they were all adult birds, and we did not observe a single bird 

 of last year in the mottled plumage. The only way in which I can 

 account for this is by supposing that, after the young are hatched and 

 able to shift for themselves, the parent birds drive them away. One 

 day, while walking towards Worbarrow, we observed some men 

 ploughing, and a large flock of herring gulls in close attendance upon 

 them, evidently feeding upon the worms and grubs which were turned 

 up by the plough ; so heedless did they seem of danger that, had we 

 been walking alongside one of the teams, I believe we could have 

 killed two or three at a shot. We killed some very fine old birds by 

 sitting down on the top of the cliflfs and waiting for them to come 

 over, when they frequently rose from below and came within shot 

 before seeing us : sometimes they fell below into the sea, and we were 

 obliged to go a long way round to pick them up. On one occasion 

 I had a most exciting chase after a wounded herring gull : the bird 

 fell in a sheltered bay, and being only winged at once swam out to sea. 

 Having fired both barrels, and not having time to load and shoot 

 before it was out of range, I was obliged to be my own retriever, and 



* Since writing the above I have heard from my friend (who remained after I had 

 left) that, about a week after my departure, he caught a fine lesser blackbacked gull 

 in a gin, and saw several smaller gulls, which were probably kittiwakes or common 

 gulls. 



