ANGLE SEA BIRD-NOTES. 99 



while the old birds swung in a screaming cloud above them. 

 Among the Herring- Gulls were a pair of Lesser and two pairs of 

 Greater Black-backed Gulls, the deep angry "ugh, ugh" of the 

 larger birds being audible in the general clamour. When we 

 scrambled up the stack the young birds crouched in the herbage, 

 or on the lichen-covered rocks, remaining for the most part 

 perfectly still until we picked them up, though now and then 

 one, older than its fellows and more sure of its feet, would run 

 before us until it fell sprawling into some crevice, or over the edge 

 of the plateau to find safety on the rock below. There were 

 Herring- Gulls' nests with two or three eggs, mostly chipped for 

 hatching, and young in all stages, from downy nestlings just out 

 of the shell to those with the brown feathers of the mantle and 

 under parts well grown, almost able to fly. The young birds 

 appear to leave the nest as soon as they are hatched, crouching 

 a few inches away from the shallow untidy structure of dried 

 grass and herbage, a habit common to the Black-headed and 

 Greater Black-backed among other Gulls. We found the young 

 of both pairs of Greater Black-backed Gulls crouching in the 

 scurvy-grass. Their primaries were not yet showing, but the 

 birds were much larger than Herring-Gulls in the same stage of 

 growth, and bolder, running and calling loudly when we disturbed 

 them. Their legs were stouter in proportion, and their beaks 

 shorter and stouter than those of the Herring-Gulls, whilst their 

 heads were rather greyer. They disgorged what appeared to be 

 the flesh of some mammal or bird — pink, loose-fibred, half- 

 digested stuff — possibly the flesh of young Herring- Gulls ; there 

 were several dead nestlings on the rock, and the old Black-backs 

 would have had no need to kill living birds if such food were to 

 their liking. The young Herring-Gulls we handled ejected fish 

 and fragments of Crabs in their fright. As is always the case in 

 a Herring-Gull colony on the Welsh coast, there were many 

 pellets of small broken Mussel-shells lying about ; and near one 

 of the Black-backed Gulls' nests a pellet formed of the remains 

 of a full-grown Water- Vole. 



During our week of enforced waiting for a chance to reach the 

 Skerries, we met with many birds along the coast. To give a 

 list would be superfluous in view of the recently published account 

 of the birds of this district, and it will suffice to speak of a few 



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