46 CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 



CASE 4. 



THE HERRING-GULL, THE COMMON 



GULL, THE LESSER BLACK-BACKED 



GULL, THE OYSTER CATCHER. 



The Herring Gull. 

 Order, Gavice. Family, Laridcs. 



This species is fairly distributed over the British 

 Islands, and is partial to the rocks and stacks of our 

 coasts, the chalk cliffs of Kent and Sussex, where it 

 may be said to breed. Nests are also found on 

 marshy ground, and there are colonies on the small 

 islands in Scotch lochs, especially in the Hebrides, 

 where it is found in company with the Lesser Black- 

 Backed and the Common Gull. The specimen in 

 the case was, as far as my memory serves me, shot 

 on one of the lochs in the Hebrides when out on a 

 day's trout fishing. 



The species would appear to have acquired its 

 epithet from the habit of following the herrings to 

 sea. In my expeditions amongst the western 

 islands of Scotland I have repeatedly seen large 

 flocks of these Gulls settled on one particular spot, 

 where they appeared to have discovered a shoal of 

 herrings sufficiently near the surface to enable them 

 to feed to their hearts' content. But, although the 

 Herring-Gull may be fond of fish, it does not by 

 any means confine itself to that diet. Howard 

 Saunders says : " Like other large Gulls it is a great 



