270 THE BIRDS OF lONA AND MULL. 



the height of the excitement — they actually laid a volley of eggs in mid- 

 air over his devoted head, which descended into the water around 

 him in a perfect shower ! Of course he was evidently ignorant of 

 our habit of throwing the refuse eggs over the clifi" when returning to 

 the boat. 



The half-fledged gulls are easily reared, and become very useful 

 garden scavengers. Their wings need not be kept clipped, as they 

 become so attached to their domicile as never to fly entirely away. A 

 tame black-back (a female) lived many years with an lona farmer. It 

 regularly disappeared at the commencement of the breeding season, 

 and did not reappear till it was entirely concluded, after having no 

 doubt reared a brood on one of the neighbouring islands. From this I 

 should suppose that their matrimonial engagements only last for one 

 season, and that they do not remain mated for life, though the great 

 black-backs, which are less gregarious than the smaller gulls, seem to 

 go in pairs at all times of the year. The immature plumage of the 

 gulls is a mottled grey and dark brown, bills black, legs livid, and 

 irides hazel, the tail marked by a broad band of black, which it retains 

 till the whole of the rest of the plumage has gradually assumed the 

 pure hues of adult age. In this state they are known as wagels. 



The Common Gull. 



Norwegian, Fiske mase — fish gull. 



It need only be said that this lesser gull exists in vast quantities 

 about our shores, breeding in the same places as the larger gulls, 

 affecting ledges and clefts, like the herring gull, for the site of its nest. 



The Kittiwake. 



Norwegian, Tre taig mase — three-toed gull. 



Comes to us in great flocks for the summer, breeding on all the 

 islands, and fishing along the shore in company with the other gulls. 

 Among other places it nestles above the huge portals of the great Cave 

 of Pingal, at Staffa, and, as the startled birds rise in flocks when dis- 

 turbed by the arrival of the summer steamboat, they amuse the visitors 

 by their vociferous iteration of their own name — kittiwake/ kitty-wake I 

 — which they all keep screaming out in unison, till the air resounds with 



