LESSER BLACK-BACKED GCJLL. 21 5 



litter, placed either on turf or the bare rock. The eggs 

 (Plate 87), as frequently two as three in a clutch, are buff 01 

 olive, usually boldly but not profusely spotted with brown and 

 grey ; they are laid in May or early June. The nestling, which 

 is fed by regurgitation, has pale-grey, often yellowish down, 

 boldly spotted with black ; its bill and legs are lead-blue, its 

 irides dark brown. At a very early age it leaves the nest and 

 runs for shelter if approached, crouching under a rock or 

 amongst herbage. 



The quills and scapulars of the mature bird are white tipped, 

 the second primary usually has a "mirror" ; the bill is yellow 

 with red on the deeply angled under mandible, the orbits are 

 red, and the irides yellow. The legs vary from flesh colour to 

 pink-tinted white. In winter there are brownish-grey streaks 

 on the head and neck, but these are often lost before the end 

 of the year. In the first plumage of dappled brown and grey, 

 the bird is paler than the young Herring-Gull, but in its second 

 year there is some indication of the dark mantle. Observations 

 on the changes of plumage of birds in captivity give such 

 different results that it seems unsafe to take them as a guide, 

 and the actual date at which maturity is reached is uncertain, 

 but probably about the fourth year ; the bill changes from 

 blackish grey to yellow, but during the change shows a pinkish 

 tinge at the base, and the black remains longest as a band 

 towards the tip. Length, 29 ins. Wing, 19 ins. Tarsus, 

 3 ins. 



Lesser Black-backed Gull. Lams fusais Linn. 



In 1912 Mr. P. R. Lowe called attention to the paler slate- 

 grey mantle of the British Lesser Black-backed Gull (Plate 91), 

 as compared with the slate-black of the Scandinavian bird. 

 The dark Lams fuscus ficscics Linn., nests in Scandinavia and 

 eastern Russia, and in Siberia is replaced by yet another form, 



