YELLOW-LEGGED HERRING GULL 431 



paniou informed me that daring the past seven years 

 he had on several occasions taken eggs from their nests 

 on the shore. He is inchned to think that the very great 

 increase in the numbers of the Herring Gnhs since the 

 Wild Birds Preservation Act came into force has led to 

 the crowding of the securer breeding stations, and that 

 the Gulls that nest on the beach are the younger ones 

 which have been unable to find nesting room in the safer 

 positions. It was satisfactory to learn, from my com- 

 panion's personal observation, that the number of Herring 

 Gulls had largely increased during the past ten years. 

 I should estimate roughly that not less than four hundred 

 pairs of Herring Gulls nest in the cliffs between Dover 

 and St. Margaret's Bay. To ornithologists who reside 

 in the neighbourhood of London, and who may not have 

 the opportunity of visiting the more distant great rock 

 nurseries of sea-fowl along our coasts, I recommend a 

 visit to these cliffs, but care must be taken to time it 

 with due consideration of the tides, for a mistake might 

 lead to an awkward predicament, as at high water the 

 sea rises to the cliffs, except in a few spots, where some 

 of the gulls, as I have already mentioned, make their 

 nests on the gravel" {Zoologist, 1887, p. 294). 



YELLOW-LEGGED HEKEING GULL. 



Lanes cacJiinna?is, Pallas. Zoogr. Busso-Asiat., 

 ii., p. 318 (1818). 



" The Hon. N. Charles Rothschild records that he 

 observed in Dover Harbour, on April 18, 1904, a bird 

 which he considered to have been an example of the 

 Yellow-Legged Herring Gull {Lams cachinnans). The 



