Chapter 13

167. HERRING GULL. _Larus argentatus_, Gmelin. French, "Goeland argenté," "Goeland à manteau bleu."--The Herring Gull is very common, indeed the commonest Gull, and is resident in all the Islands throughout the year, breeding in nearly all of them in such places as are suited to it. In Guernsey it breeds on the high cliffs, from the so-called Gull Cliff, near Pleinmont, to the Corbiere, the Gouffre, the Moye Point to Petit Bo in considerable numbers; from Petit Bo Bay to St. Martin's Point much more sparingly. In Sark it breeds in considerable numbers; on Little Sark on both sides of the Coupée, and on nearly all the west side; that towards Guernsey, especially about Harbour Goslin, a place called the Moye de Moutton near there, which is a most excellent place for watching the breeding operations of this Gull as well as of the Shags, as with a moderate climb on the rocks one can easily look into several nests and see what both old and young are about. On the island close to Sark, called Isle de Merchant, or Brechou, especially on the steep rocky side nearest to Sark; a great many also breed on and about the Autelets: in fact, almost all the grandest and wildest scenery in Sark has been appropriated by the Herring Gulls for their breeding-places, who, except for the Shags, hold almost undisputed possession of the grandest part of the Island. On the east side, or that towards France, few or no Herring Gulls breed; the cliffs being more sloping, and covered with grass and gorse, and heather, are not at all suited for breeding purposes for the Herring Gull. A few pairs have lately set up a small breeding-station on the rock before mentioned near Jethou, as La Fauconnière; a very few also breed on Herm on the south part nearest to Jethou, but none that we could see on the rocks to the north of Herm. A great many breed also in Alderney on the south and east sides, but none on the little island of Burhou, which has been entirely appropriated by the Lesser Black-backs; in all these places the Herring Gulls and Shags take almost entire possession of the rocks, the Lesser Black-backs apparently never mixing with them; indeed, except a chance straggler or two passing by, a Lesser Black-back is scarcely to be seen at any of these stations. The Herring Gull and the Lesser Black-back, though very distinct in their adult plumage, and even before they fully arrive at maturity, as soon as they begin to show the different colour of the mantle, which they do in their second autumn, when a few of either the dark or the pale grey feathers appear amongst the brownish ones of the young bird, are before this change begins very much alike. In the down I think they are almost, if not quite, indistinguishable after that in their first feathers, and up to their first winter they appear to me distinguishable. As far as the primary quills go I do not see much difference; the shafts, perhaps, of the quills of the Lesser Black-back are darker than those of the Herring, but the difference if anything is very slight; but the head and neck and the centres of the feathers of the back of the Lesser Black-back are darker,--more of a dark smoky brown than those of the Herring Gull: this difference of colour is even more apparent on the under surface, including the breast, belly, and flanks. The shoulder of the wing and the under wing-coverts of the Lesser Black-back are much darker, nearly dull sooty black, and much less margined and marked with pale whitey brown than those of the Herring Gull. The dark bands on the end of the tail-feathers of the Lesser Black-back are broader and darker than in the Herring Gull: this seems especially apparent on the two outer tail-feathers on each side; besides this, there is a slight difference in the colour of the legs, those of the Lesser Black-back showing a slight indication of the yellow of maturity. I have noted these distinctions both from living specimens of both species which I have kept, and noted their various changes from time to time, and from skins of both: unfortunately the two skins of the youngest birds I have are not quite of the same age, one being that of a young Herring Gull, killed at the Needles in August,--the other a young Lesser Black-back, killed in Guernsey in December; but I do not think that this difference of time from August to December, the birds being of the same year, makes much difference in the colour of the feathers; at least this is my experience of live birds: it is not till the next moult that more material distinctions begin to appear; after that there can be no doubt as to the species. Two young Herring Gulls which I have, and which I saw in the flesh at Couch's shop just after they had been shot, seem to me worthy of some notice as showing the gradual change of plumage in the Herring Gull; they were shot on the same day, and appear to me to be one exactly a year older than the other; they were killed in November, when both had clean moulted, and show examples of the second and third moult. No. 1, the oldest, has the back nearly uniform grey, and the rump and upper tail-coverts white, as in the adult. In No. 2, the younger one, the grey feathers on the back were much mixed with the brownish feathers of the young bird, and there are no absolutely white feathers on the rump and tail-coverts, all of them being more or less marked with brown. The tail in No. 2 has the brown on it collected in large and nearly confluent blotches, whilst that of No. 1 is merely freckled with brown. But perhaps the greatest difference is in the primary quills; the first four primaries, however, are much alike, those of No. 1, being a little darker and more distinctly coloured; in both they are nearly of a uniform colour, only being slightly mottled on the inner web towards the base; there is no white tip to either. In No. 1 the fifth primary has a distinct white tip; the sixth also has a decided white tip, and is much whiter towards the base, the difference being quite as perceptible on the outer as on the inner web. The seventh has a small spot of brown towards the tip on the outer web, the rest of the feather being almost uniform pale grey, with a slightly darker shade on the outer web, and white at the tip; the eighth grey, with a broad white tip. In No. 2 the fifth primary has no white tip; the sixth also has no white tip, and not so much white towards the base; the seventh is all brown, slightly mottled towards the base, and only a very slight indication of a white tip; and the eighth is mottled throughout. I think it worth while to mention these two birds, as I have their exact dates, and the difference of a year between them agrees exactly with young birds which I have taken in their first feathers and brought up tame. I may also add, with regard to change of plumage owing to age, that very old birds do not appear to get their heads so much streaked with brown in the winter as younger though still adult birds, as a pair which I caught in Sark when only flappers, and brought home in July, 1866, had few or no brown streaks about their heads in the winter of 1877-8, and in the winter of 1878-9 their heads are almost as white as in the breeding-season. These birds had their first brood in 1873, and have bred regularly every year since that time, and certainly have considerably more white on their primary quills than when they first assumed adult plumage and began to breed. Probably this increase of white on the primaries as age increases, even after the full-breeding-plumage is assumed, is always the case in the Herring Gull, and also in both the Lesser and Greater Black-backs, thus distinguishing very old birds from those which, though adult, have only recently assumed the breeding-plumage. I know Mr. Howard Saunders is of this opinion, certainly as far as Herring Gulls are concerned. Besides the live ones, two skins I have, both of adult birds, as far as breeding-plumage only is concerned, are evidently considerably older than the other. No. 1, the youngest of these,--shot in Guernsey in August, when just assuming winter plumage, the head being much streaked, even then, with brown, showing that though adult it was not a very old bird,--has the usual white tip on the first primary, below which the whole feather is black on both webs, and below that a white spot on both webs, for an inch; the white, however, much encroached upon on the outer part of the outer web by a margin of black. In No. 2, probably the older bird, the first primary has the white tip and the white spot running into each other, thus making the tip of the feather for nearly two inches white, with only a slight patch of black on the outer web. On the second primary of No. 1 the white tip is present, but no white spot; but on the same feather of No. 2 there is a white spot on the inner web, about an inch from the white tip; this would, probably, in a still older bird, become confluent with the white tip, as in the first primary. I have not, however, a sufficiently old bird to follow out this for certain. In No. 1, the older bird, the pale grey on the lower part of the feathers also extends farther towards the tip, thus encroaching on the black of the primaries from below as well as from above. I think these examples are sufficient to show that the white does encroach on the black of the primaries as the bird grows older, till at last, in very old birds, there would not be much more than a bar of black between the white tip and the rest of the feather; and this is very much the case with the tame ones I caught in Sark in 1866, and which are therefore, now in the winter of 1879, twelve and a half years old; but I do not believe that at any age the black wholly disappears from the primaries, leaving them white as in the Iceland and Glaucous Gulls. The Herring Gull is an extremely voracious bird, eating nearly everything that comes in its way, and rejecting the indigestible parts as Hawks do. Mr. Couch, in the 'Zoologist' for 1874, mentions having taken a Misseltoe Thrush from the throat of one; and I can quite believe it, supposing it found the Thrush dead or floating half drowned on the water. I have seen my tame ones catch and kill a nearly full-grown rat, and bolt it whole; and young ducks, I am sorry to say, disappear down their throats in no time, down and all. They are also great robbers of eggs, no sort of egg coming amiss to them; Guillemots' eggs, especially, they are very fond of; this may probably account for there being no Guillemots breeding in Guernsey or Sark, and only a very few at Alderney; in fact, Ortack being the only place in the Channel Islands in which they do breed in anything like numbers.

Professor Ansted includes the Herring Gull in his list, but only marks it as occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There are two, an old and a young bird, in the Museum.

168. LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. _Larus fuscus_, Linnaeus. French, "Goeland à pieds jaunes."--The Lesser Black-backed Gull is common in the Islands, remaining throughout the year and breeding in certain places. None of these birds breed in Guernsey itself, or on the mainland of Sark, and very few, if any, on Alderney. A few may be seen, from time to time, wandering about all the Islands during the breeding-season; but these are either immature birds or wanderers from their own breeding-stations. About Sark a few pairs breed on Le Tas[33] and one or two other outlying islets; their principal breeding-stations, however, appear to be on the small rocky islands to the north of Herm, on all of which, as far out as the Amfrocques, we found considerable numbers breeding, or rather attempting to do so; for this summer, 1878, having been generally fine, all these rocks were tolerably easily landed on, and the fishermen had robbed the Lesser Black-backs to an extent which threatens some day to exterminate them, in spite of the Guernsey Bird Act, which professes to protect the eggs as well as the birds; but a far better protection for these poor Black-backs is a roughish summer, when landing on these islands is by no means safe or pleasant, and frequently impossible. On Burhou, near Alderney, there are also a considerable number of Lesser Black-backs breeding, though they fare quite as badly from the Alderney and French fishermen as those on the Amfrocques and other islands north of them do from the Guernsey fishermen. On all these islands the nests of the Lesser Black-backs were placed amongst the bracken, sea stock, thrift, &c, which grew amongst the rocks, and on the shallow soil which had collected in places. When I was at Burhou in 1876 I found Lesser Black-backs breeding all over the Island, some of the nests being placed on the low rocks, some amongst the bracken and thrift; so thickly scattered amongst the bracken were the nests, that one had to be very careful in walking for fear of treading on the nests and breaking the eggs. On this Island there is an old deserted cottage, sometimes used as a shelter by the lessees of the Island, who go over there to shoot a few wretched rabbits which pick up a precarious subsistence by feeding on the scanty herbage; on the roof of this cottage several of the Lesser Black-backs perched themselves in a row whilst I was looking about at the eggs, and kept up a most dismal screaming at the top of their voices. The eggs, as is generally the case with gulls, varied considerably both in ground colour and marking; some were freckled all over with small spots--dark brown, purple, or black; others had larger markings, principally collected at the larger end; the ground colour was generally blue, green, or dull olive-green. None of the Gulls had hatched when I was there on the 14th of June, though some of the eggs were very hard set; and on the 29th of July I received two young birds which had been taken on Burhou; these still had down on them when I got them, and were then difficult to tell from young Herring Gulls. The distinctions I have mentioned in my note of that bird were, however, apparent, and the slight difference in the colour of the legs is perhaps more easily seen in the live birds than in skins which have been kept and faded into "Museum colour." It is some time, however, before either bird assumes the proper colour, either of the legs or bill, the change being very gradual. After the autumnal moult of 1878, however, the dark feathers of the mantle almost entirely took the place of the brownish feathers of the young birds; the quills, however, have still (February, 1879) no white tips, and the tail-feathers are still much mottled with brown. One Lesser Black-back, which I shot near the Vale Church on the 17th of July, 1866, is perhaps worthy of note as being in transition, and perhaps a rather abnormal state of change considering the time of year at which it was shot; it was in a full state of moult; the new feathers on the head, neck, tail-coverts, and under parts are white; the tail also is white, except four old feathers, two on each side not yet moulted, which are much mottled with brown. The primary quills had not been moulted, and are quite those of the immature bird, with no white tip whatever. All the new feathers of the back and wing-coverts are the dark slate-grey of the adult, but the old worn feathers are the brownish feathers of the young bird; these feathers are much worn and faded, being a paler brown than is usual in young birds. The legs and bill are also quite as much in a state of change as the rest of the bird. Before finishing this notice of the Lesser Black-back I think it is worth while to notice that it selects quite a different sort of breeding-place to the Herring Gull; the nests are never placed on ledges on the steep precipitous face of the cliffs, but amongst the bracken and the flat rocks, as at Burhou, the only rather steep rock I have seen any nests on was at the Amfrocques, but there they were on the flattish top of the rock, and not on ledges on the side.

Professor Ansted includes the Lesser Black-backed Gull in his list, but only marks it as occurring in Guernsey. There is one specimen in the Museum.

169. COMMON GULL. _Larus canus_, Linnaeus. French, "Goeland cendré," "Mouette a pieds bleus,"[34] "La Mouette d'Hiver".[35]--The Common Gull, though by no means uncommon in the Channel Islands during the winter, never remains to breed there, nor does it do so, I believe, any where in the West of England, certainly not in Somerset or Devon, as stated by Mr. Dresser in the 'Birds of Europe,' _fide_ the Rev. M.A. Mathew and Mr. W.D. Crotch, who must have made some mistake as to its breeding in those two counties; in Cornwall it is said to breed, by Mr. Dresser, on the authority of Mr. Rodd. Mr. Dresser, however, does not seem to have had his authority direct from either of these gentlemen, and only quotes it from Mr. A.G. More. Mr. Rodd, however, in his 'Notes on the Birds of Cornwall,' published in the 'Zoologist' for 1870, only says, "Generally distributed in larger or smaller numbers along or near our coasts," which would be equally true of the Channel Islands, although it does not breed there; however, as Mr. Rodd is going to publish his interesting notes on the Birds of Cornwall in a separate form, it is much to be hoped that he will clear that matter up as far as regards that county and the Scilly Islands. Like the Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gull, the Common Gull goes through several changes of plumage before it arrives at maturity; like them it begins with the mottled brownish stage, and gradually assumes the blue-grey mantle of maturity; in the earlier stages the primaries have no white spots at the tips. The legs and bill, which appear to go through more changes than in other Gulls, are in an intermediate state bluish grey (which accounts for Temminck's name mentioned above) before they assume the pale yellow of maturity: although at this time they have the mantle quite as in the adult, there is a material difference in the pattern of the primary quills, and they do not appear to breed till their bills have become quite yellow and their legs a pale greenish yellow. I cannot quite tell at what age the Common Gull begins to breed, for, although I have a pair which have laid regularly for the last two years (they have not, however, hatched any young, which perhaps is the fault of the Herring Gulls, whom I have several times caught sucking their eggs), I do not know what their age was when I first had them as I did the Herring Gulls from Sark and the Lesser Black-backs from Burhou; I can only say when I first had them they had the bills and legs blue; in fact they were in the state in which they are the "Mouette à pieds bleus" of Temminck.

Professor Ansted includes the Common Gull in his list, and marks it as occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There is no specimen in the Museum.

170. GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. _Larus marinus_, Linnaeus. French, "Goeland à manteau noir."--The Great Black-backed Gull is by no means so numerous in the Channel Islands as the Herring Gull and the Lesser Black-back, and is here as elsewhere a rather solitary and roaming bird. A few, however, remain about the Channel Islands, and breed in places which suit them, such as Ortack, which I have before mentioned, as the breeding-place of the Razorbill and Guillemot; and we found one nest on one of the rocks to the north of Herm, but it had been robbed, as had all the other Gulls' nests about there; we saw, however, the old birds about, and Mr. Howard Saunders found one nest on the little Island of Le Tas, close to Sark; it was quite on the top of the Island, and there were young in it. I have one splendid adult bird, shot near the harbour in Guernsey, in March: I should think this is rather an old bird, as, although there are slight indications of winter plumage on the head, the white tips of the primaries are very large, that of the first extending fully two inches and a half, which is considerably more than that of a fully adult bird I have from Lundy Island. The Great Black-backed Gull is sufficiently common and well known to have a local name in Guernsey-French (Hublot or Ublat), for which see 'Métivier's Dictionary.'

Professor Ansted includes the Great Black-backed Gull in his list, and marks it as only occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There are three specimens in the Museum--an adult bird, a young one, and a young one in down, with the feathers just beginning to show. In the young bird the head and neck were mottled and much like those of a young Herring Gull in the same state; the back, thighs, and under parts do not appear so much spotted as in the young Herring Gull; the feathers on the scapulars and wing-coverts were just beginning to show two shades of brown, as in the more mature state; the same may be said of the primary quills, which were also just beginning to make their appearance; the tail, which was only just beginning to show, was nearly black, margined with white.

171. BROWN-HEADED GULL. _Larus ridibundus_, Linnaeus. French, "Mouette rieuse."[36] This pretty little Gull is a common autumn and winter visitant to all the Islands, remaining on to the spring, but never breeding in any of them, though a few young and non-breeding birds may be seen about at all times of the summer, especially about the harbour. Being a marsh-breeding Gull, and selecting low marshy islands situated for the most part in inland fresh-water lakes and large pieces of water, it is not to be wondered at that it does not breed in the Channel Islands, where there are no places either suited to its requirements or where it could find a sufficient supply of its customary food during the breeding-season. Very soon after they have left their breeding-stations, however, both old and young birds may be seen about the harbours and bays of Guernsey and the other islands seeking for food, in which matter they are not very particular, picking up any floating rubbish or nastiness they may find in the harbour. The generality of specimens occurring in the Channel Islands are in either winter or immature plumage, very few having assumed the dark-coloured head which marks the breeding plumage. This dark colour of the head, which is sometimes assumed as early as the end of February, comes on very rapidly, not being the effect of moult, but of a change of colour in the feathers themselves, the dark colouring-matter gradually spreading over each feather and supplanting the white of the winter plumage; a few new feathers are also grown at this time to replace any that have been accidentally shed--these come in the dark colour. The young birds in their first feathers are nearly brown, but the grey feathers make their appearance amongst the brown ones at an earlier stage than in most other gulls. The primary quills, which are white in the centre with a margin of black, vary also a good deal with age, the black margins growing narrower and the white in places extending through the black margin to the edge, so that in adult birds the black margins are not so complete as in younger examples.