672 The Zoologist — April, 1807. 



Great Blackbncked Gull. — Plentiful in the Firth and outside, but 

 no amount of cold seems to make this king of gulls tame. The old 

 birds were always seen singly, and the young ones in small numbers 

 together. The former I generally found on the mud flats in Nigg Bay, 

 on the opposite side of the Firth. These fine old fellows have 

 a habit of flying over a boat, sometimes high in the air, and 

 uttering their far-off sounding " kow-kow," as if they objected to your 

 presence in their haunts. One morning I was out at day-break in a 

 duck punt (minus the punt-gun), and a ponderous individual with a 

 back as black as night loomed up from the distance, flew round once 

 or twice over my head, uttering loud cries, and then turned away ; but 

 thinking he had not inspected me euough he came back, and after 

 giving vent to his opinions in the same manner he vanished in the 

 gray dawn. Can any of your readers assign a reason for this habit? 

 I have often observed it. Perhaps my friend was bidding me " good 

 morning ! " 



Lesser Blackbacked Gull. — Not so plentiful as the great blackbacked 

 gull : those I observed were young birds, judging from what I shot of 

 course. 



Herring Gull. — Very plentiful. The old birds and young ones 

 keep very much apart. The former I used to find on the sands of the 

 opposite side of the Firth, whereas the young ones, with occasionally 

 an old bird or two, frequented the " curing" house in large numbers. 

 They were very thin after a fortnight's frost. These birds became 

 very tame and fearless : one day I saw a pair of old birds alight on a 

 wall within a few yards of the door of a cottage, and at other times I 

 have seen them hovering over the back yards of the houses. They do 

 not seem to suffer so much from the hard weather as the blackheaded 

 gull ; the) r are not particular what they eat : they frequented the sheep- 

 folds and turnip-fields where the snow had been beaten down by the 

 sheep, and on coming south, after the thaw had set in, between 

 Inverness and Nairn, I saw what appeared to me from the carriage- 

 window to be a dung-heap so thickly covered with herring and common 

 gulls that one could with difficulty have found room to stand 

 on it. 



Common Gull. — Very common in the Firth, with a very large propor- 

 tion of young birds, many of which I shot in every variety of plumage. 

 They were always to be seen in great numbers, seeking their food on 

 the edge of the ebbing and flowing tide, and picking up what they 

 could find floating about iu part of the fishing village. 



