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 character 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 cliffs 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. D. Marshall, 1834. 
f Mr. Robert Taylor. 
