LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 99 

 LARUS FUSCUS AFFINIS Reinhardt. 

 BRITISH LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. 

 HABITS. 



The Siberian gull is no longer entitled to a place on our list, which 

 it has held ever since the type specimen of Laims affinis was taken 

 in Greenland and described by Reinhardt. The lesser black-backed 

 gull of Europe and Asia has been subdivided into three subspecies — 

 Larus fuscus fuscus Linnaeus of northern Europe, Scandinavia, 

 etc.; Larus fuscus affinis Reinhardt of the British Isles, Faroes, 

 and Greenland; and Larus fuscus antelius Iredale of Siberia. Rein- 

 hardt's bird, the type of Lai'us affinis and the bird which occurs as 

 a straggler in Greenland was, until recently, supposed to be of the 

 Siberian form. But Iredale has recently examined Reinhardt's type 

 specimen and found it to be referable to the British form, the well- 

 known lesser black-backed gull. He therefore gave a new name 

 to the Siberian form, which necessitated the above rearrangement 

 of the group, and makes it necessary for us to eliminate the Siberian 

 gull from our list and enter in place of it the British lesser black- 

 backed gull {Larus fuscus affinis Reinhardt). 



Nesting. — This well-known gull occurs in Great Britain, both as 

 migrant and as a resident, throughout the year. Much has been 

 written about its habits. Dr. Henry O. Forbes (1898) writes of its 

 breeding habits: 



In May the lesser black-backed gulls select their nesting place, betaking them- 

 selves, as Macgillivray states, " to unfrequented islands, headlands, and some- 

 times inland lakes (and mosses), often in considerable numbers, and there 

 remain until their young are able to fly, although they make extensive ex- 

 cursions around in search of food." On the Teifi Bog, in mid-Wales, about 

 12 miles from the sea, the nests are placed " on slight hillocks, generally in 

 deep heather, the vicinity, with trampled grass and scattered feathers, being 

 suggestive of a goose green" (Salter). "In Hoy (in the Orkneys) anyone," 

 writes Mr. Moodie-Heddle to Harvie-Brown, " can create a breeding place of 

 the lesser black-backed gull by burning a large tract late in the season ; the 

 gulls then come on the bare ground (through the following summer and 

 autumn) to catch moths and winged insects, which have no heather left to go 

 down into. They then usually begin to breed on the tufts of white moss left 

 unburnt the following season. The breeding places by the water of Hoy and 

 down to Pegal Burn were thus formed by accidental fires. No gulls bred 

 there for many years before, and we could kill 60 to 70 brace more grouse. 



In lona, Mr. Graham notes that this gull made its nest on the flat, marshy 

 summits of all the lesser islands. The nest is sometimes on the bare rock, but 

 more often on a grassy slope, if such exist near. The most remarkable situa- 

 tion for a nest, perhaps, is that cited by Doctor Sharpe, which was placed in 

 the middle of a sheep track, and the sheep, in passing to and fro, had to jump 

 over the back of the sitting bird. This nest (with its four eggs) is now in the 

 British Museum. 



