LARID^. 377 



glance as they sailed on ; and so still and silent vrere they that we thought 

 there was something ghostly about them ; they might have been the 

 transmigrated Knights of the Round Table keeping watch over the scenes 

 of their former revels. Another spot on which to see the Herring-Gnll to 

 perfection is Baggy Point, the eastward boundary of Barnstaple Bay. 

 This is a favourite breeding-station of the birds, and in June we have often 

 enjoyed a peep over the edge of the cliff at the numerous nests on the 

 ledges below. The Gulls have noisy neighbours in the chatteriug Jackdaws 

 and in a pair of Peregrines, which continually dart backwards and for- 

 wards above the cliff, screaming loudly their anger, doubtless excited by 

 our presence. The Herring-GuJl is almost omnivorous ; nothing seems to 

 come amiss to it. It is very destructive to young rabbits in warrens 

 bordering on the coast, and as it has increased enormously in numbers in 

 some places, owing to the operation of the Sea Birds' Preservation Act, we 

 know of warrens which formerly used to produce many thousands of 

 rabbits during the season, but which now do not yield as many hundreds. 

 The evil character it bears in Scotland, owing to its eating eggs and young 

 grouse upon the moors near the coast, is probably well-earned. We have 

 already related how every AVoodcock which, shot on the sidlings on Lundy, 

 chanced to fall over the cliff into the sea would be espied by the watchful 

 Gulls that would swoop after it, and as soon as the dead bird touched the 

 water a great scramble ensued as to which of them should first seize upon 

 and devour it. Tame Herring-Gulls kept in gardens are good vermin- 

 killers, and are very clever in pouncing upon and killing rats in particular. 

 Col. Montagu noticed that his tame Herring-Gulls had a trick of treading the 

 earth with their feet in order to induce worms to come forth for them to eat ; 

 we have alread)' recorded this as a habit with Woodcock and Snipe. Almost 

 every day in the year Herring-Gulls and Kittiwakes, with an occasional 

 Black-backed Gull, may be seen hunting about the mouths of the drains 

 outside Ilfracombe Harbour in search of any garbage which may serve 

 as food. In the spring the Herring-Gulls come some miles inland 

 to visit the freshly-ploughed fields and the water-meadows, and their 

 presence any distance from the coast is always considered ominous of 

 stormy weather. Some tame Herring-Gulls kejjt by Mr. Cecil Smith used 

 to lay eggs in the s])ring; ])ut we do not believe that they ever hatclied any 

 off, as the birds either devoured the eggs themselves or they fell a prey to 

 the rats. 



[Ohservadon. — Another species of Herring-Gull, namely Lams ajjinis, 

 lleinhardt, is not unlikely to visit the British Islands, as Mr. (jiiitke has 

 obtained it at Heligoland. It is a native of Northern Siberia, and passes 

 the winter in South-eastern Europe, Korth Africa, India, &c. The 

 mantle is dark slate-colour (resembling pale examples of L. fiiscus), and 

 the legs and feet are yellow as in that s])ecies, and not flesh-colour as in 

 the Herring-(inll, l)ut the foot is larger in ])ro])ortion thaji in the Lesser 

 Black-backed (iull, and the pattern of the outer primaries is dili'crent 

 (YarreU's B. Birds, 4tli ed, iii. p. 021).] 



