THE HERRING-GULL. 359 



northern side of the island, these birds occupied the range of 

 white cliffs on the northern side of Church Bay ; here they re- 

 mained quite secure, for they scarcely ever ventured lower than 

 the middle of the precipices, and could in this manner effectually 

 escape the gun of the fowler, either from the summit or base. 

 This species was also found in pairs on the eastern coast, although 

 on this part of the island it was rare. The cry of the herring- 

 gull is very similar to that of the common gull, and the two were 

 not unfrequently confounded with each other, when soaring 

 towards the summits of their respective cliffs.""^ 



About Horn Head both herring-gull and kittiwake breed 

 in the same cliff, with a complete line of demarcation, however, 

 between their separate haunts. Indeed, the rock itself is of a 

 different chaj-acter at the abode of each species. Below, where 

 tenanted by the kittiwake, it is mural, with narrow, horizontal 

 ledges, "long drawn out," on which their nests are placed 

 close together in a continuous row. Above, in the haunt of the 

 herring-gull, it is more broken, affording room here and there 

 for a nest, and so appropriated ; for although this species may be 

 said to breed in colonies, the nests are placed at a respectful 

 distance from each other, and merely dot the face of a cliff. The 

 herring-gull is considered so destructive to young rabbits at " the 

 Horn," where there is a most extensive warren, that a reward of 

 fourpence is given by the proprietor for every head brought 

 to him. 



A gentleman, walking round the cliff's of the Horn, on the 

 1st of August, 1850, remarked, when at Bullock's Leap : — 

 " Cliff and crag were covered with herring-gulls, and the sea 

 dotted over with flocks, each of about seventy in number. I 

 counted ten of these from this point. One ledge of rock was 

 so closely covered, the birds jostled one another when coming 

 to it. I should say the herring-gull is in the proportion of six to 

 one of all the other gulls we saw here, comprising the common, 

 kittiwake, and great black-backed species."t I do not know the 



♦ Dr. J. 1). WaishaU, 1834. t Mr. Robert Taylor. 



