50 CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 



Gull, than which there is hardly a more destructive 

 bird on the list of British Birds. Nothing comes 

 amiss from the carrion to the greatest delicacy; it is, 

 I think, a fact that the Great Black- Backed Gull 

 will attack and kill weakly lambs, but some credit 

 must be given to it for its services as a scavenger. 

 However, this is somewhat of a digression. 



The Lesser Black- Backed Gull is resident all the 

 year in the British Islands. " It is more local than 

 the Herring-Gull in its distribution during the 

 breeding-season, owing to its liking for grassy 

 slopes, flat-topped islands, or stacks of rocks, rather 

 than precipitous cliffs" (H.S.). There are colonies 

 of these birds in the south of England, Wales, and 

 the Isle of Man, but my personal observation of 

 them has been principally confined to the islands 

 that lie off the west coast of Scotland. The nest is 

 made of grass, seaweed, etc. The eggs, usually 

 three, are much the same as those of the Herring- 

 Gull, though rather smaller, and perhaps more 

 varied in colour. Booth, in his interesting "Cata- 

 logue of Birds in the Brighton Museum," in allusion 

 to the way these birds congregate in the North Sea 

 and attack the herring nets, says : "I have been 

 assured by some of the masters of the luggers that 

 they have frequently been deprived of a last of 

 herrings, and occasionally up to four or five times 

 that quantity by their depredations. A last is over 

 10,000." Again, he remarks further on: "The 

 number that they swallow is small compared with 

 those they bite and shake from the nets. I have 



