I.ARID.^. 



677 







THE GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. 



Larus mari'nus, Linnceus. 



As a breeding-species this Gull is by no means plentiful in 

 England ; but birds in various stages of immaturity may be seen on 

 our coasts at all seasons, while adults form a large proportion of 

 the flocks of " corpse-eaters " which resort to the shores of the 

 Humber in autumn. At the present day a few only nest on the 

 cliffs of Dorsetshire, Lundy Island, Cornwall, Scilly, Wales, and, 

 perhaps, on the Isle of Man ; while some find breeding-places in 

 the Lake district, and inhabit the ' flows ' in the neighbourhood of 

 the Solway. On the east of England no breeding-place is known. 

 In many parts of Scotland this rapacious (iuU is abundant, especially 

 on the deeply indented coasts and islands of the north and west, 

 and above all in the Outer Hebrides, where colonies of twenty to 

 twenty-five pairs may be found ; it also resorts, there and elsewhere, 

 to islets in mountain lakes, and to lofty hill-tops. In Ireland it is widely 

 distributed on the rocky coasts, especially in the north and west. 



The Great Black-backed Gull is resident in Iceland and the Faeroes, 



