1905. 



Notes, 



71 



Glaucous Gull at Moyview, Co. Sligo. 



When out in my shooting punt on February 14, as I was setting up 

 to a stand of Green Plover, I observed a gull standing on a rock off the 

 point of one of my fields. On approaching closer, I saw that it was 

 either an Iceland or Glaucous Gull. So taking up my cripple-stopper, I 

 knocked him over with a charge of No. 6, and found that he was a very 

 fine specimen of an immature Glaucous Gull — probably in the first year's 

 plumage. These birds are very irregular in their visits, for the last bird 

 I observed was on ist January, 1901. 



Robert Warren. 



Moyview, Ballina. 



Food of the Herring Gull. 



Whilst spending several weeks last autumn at Ventry, West Dingle, 

 Co. Kerry, I had many opportunities of studying the habit? of the sea- 

 birds frequenting the steep cliffs of that romantic coast. It was possible 

 at a few places for a person to clamber down the rocks to near the sea 

 level, where flat plateaux of low-lying rocks extended into the sea. en- 

 closing, in many places, pools of water much frequented by the various 

 species of gulls and large flocks of Curlews. In making these excur- 

 sions I frequently came upon little circular patches on the rocks, com- 

 posed of particles of coarse grain of some kind, separated and washed 

 about by the rain water, and I was puzzled to account for their 

 appearance. Luckily I discovered a place where much of this kind of 

 refuse was scattered about, and found many complete balls, about one 

 and a half inches in diameter, covered and kept in shape b}' a strong 

 glossy mucus of some kind. On opening several I found they were 

 composed of the broken-up outer covering of oat grains, closely packed 

 together, and evidently voided by some bird of considerable size. Cor- 

 morants, gulls, and Curlew were the only birds noticed in the neigh- 

 bourhood, and I often looked forward to solving the problem of what 

 particular sea-bird had made so remarkable a change in its diet. One 

 very bright September day, whilst sketching near the village of Coome- 

 noole, facing the Blasket Islands, I noticed a large flock of Herring 

 Gulls flying in from the sea, and alighting in a cornfield on the top of 

 the cliffs. Their unusual movements, with outstretched wings, flapping 

 and tossing about among the cut oats lying on the ground, attracted my 

 attention, and I found, much to my surprise, that they were engaged in 

 tearing ofi" the grains of ripe oats from the stalks and eagerly devouring 

 them. That this change of food was freely indulged in was very evident 

 from the number of the above-mentioned indigestible deposits scattered 

 over the rocks, where the birds were in the habit of coming to rest. 

 The lines of a well-known old writer more than once occurred to me — 

 " My dog, too, altered in his taste, 

 Quits mutton bones, on grass to feast." 



A. Wii.i,r.\MS. 



Dublin. 



