1372 The Zoologist — September, 1868. 



down almost touched my cap ; the rustling of its feathers and its 

 cry were clearly meant to intimidate me. I stood admiring it for a 

 considerable time as it swooped down, and, altering the angle of its 

 wings, was as quickly borne aloft, and wheeled round again without 

 even flapping its wings. The cragsmen tell me that they sometimes 

 venture to strike a man if he meddles with their young; they also say 

 that they devour the eggs of the guillemot and kittiwake, brushing 

 them off the ledges and feeding on the tempting morsels "like 

 a christian." They keep their breeding-places remarkably clean, un- 

 like the rock-birds, which defile the rocks on which they perch, and 

 one may see them sitting on the rocks basking in the sunlight for 

 hours while preening their feathers. They did not appear to feed in 

 the immediate neighbourhood of Ailsa, but to bring their food from 

 long distances, following the shoals of herrings, sprats, &c, and often 

 seizing their food from the surface of the water without settling. 



Herring Gull. — The herring gull also breeds among the bracken 

 ferns, &c, on the terraces above the precipice where the Craig rises in 

 a dome shape, intersected by irregular terraces. The herring gull is 

 seemingly a very suspicious bird, directly an intruder approaches 

 flying to meet him, and soaring overhead cackles and croaks, dis- 

 turbing all the birds that are near. When one is stalking a bird or 

 watching, this provoking gull will come soaring above and putting the 

 birds on their guard. The eggs of this gull are very difficult to dis- 

 tinguish from those of the lesser blackbacked gull : they are on the 

 whole rather larger, but the eggs of all the gulls vary so much in size 

 and colour that the only safe plan is to identify the birds on the nest, 

 which is not an easy matter to do with this wary and suspicious bird. 

 I forgot to notice the proportion of lesser blackbacked to herring 

 gulls, but I believe the latter predominate. The cragsmen tell me 

 this bird is very much given to eating the eggs of the kittiwake, but 

 I did not observe it myself. The nest of this gull is placed at the foot 

 of a stone or rock, from which its mate keeps watch when near. It is 

 a shallow structure, formed of half-dried campion-stalks. The bracken 

 fern, hyacinth and bladder campion are the common plants on the 

 Craig: in summer the flowers of the bladder campion give the dome 

 of Ailsa a beautiful white colour, like a carpet of snow. The mate of 

 the sitting bird often takes its staud on the rock above the nest when 

 unoccupied, and, while one is yet some distance off, soars aloft with 

 its male, circling round one and uttering its cry, and occasionally 

 swoopiug down. The herring and lesser blackbacked gulls would 



