AUDOUIN'S GULL. 63 > 



the rocks in the boats watching for shots at the Falcons, I suddenly 

 heard behind me the cry of a Gull quite new to me, turned sharp 

 round at the sound; the bird was rather high up, but I knocked 

 him down; he fell on the rocks close to us, but I could not see 

 him as he lay. One of the men jumped out and picked him up; and 

 judge of my joy, ye Ibises, when I found that he was a beautiful adult 

 Larus Audouinii male in full breeding plumage! We had noticed 

 that a small colony of Gulls seemed to have established itself upon 

 the slope of the rock on the eastern side, apart from the main estab- 

 lishment about the summit and western portion; but as their general 

 appearance (at a distance) was very like that of Herring Gulls, I 

 had not paid any particular attention to them. Now, however, when 

 they took wing at my shot, I noticed that their wings seemed much 

 longer, and now and then the brilliant red bills and dark coloured 

 legs were conspicuous. I landed one of my men, with particular 

 instructions to search the spot where we had seen these Gulls, and 

 he very soon came down to the boat with six eggs, varying a good 

 deal in markings, and like those of L. leucopheus, but just the size 

 I wanted. I had particularly told the finder to bring any of the 

 Herring Gulls' eggs; but he assured me that he found none, though 

 he searched for a considerable time. 



^'The six eggs above mentioned were in five nests, one of which 

 contained two, and the rest one respectively. There were several 

 empty nests, but no young birds visible. 



"In the mean time the parents had gone off to sea in a body of 

 perhaps twenty or thirty, and were coming back to see what we were 

 about, but so cautiously, and at such a height, that, though I fired 

 several shots, I could not manage to bring down another specimen. 

 The rest of the men who had landed and clambered up to the top 

 reported great numbers of nests, and eggs, and young of Herring- 

 Gull; but I told them not to rob them, as we had such a series 

 from Vacca. It was very evident and a curious fact that the 

 Audouin's Gulls had their establishment entirely apart from their 

 congeners, and certainly they are naturally much more roving. 



" The coral fishers, on my landing among their boats drawn up on 

 the sand close to our anchorage, and enquiring for birds and nests, 

 brought me two young Gulls alive, in the down, which at once 

 struck me as too small even for newly hatched Herring Gulls, of 

 which species we had several alive in the yacht. I asked the 

 owner where he had found them, and he immediately replied, 'on 

 Toro.' 'Whereabouts?' and he proceeded to describe the exact 

 spot, not knowing that we had been there, and said that these were 



