678 GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. 



and is plentiful during summer on the coasts of the North Sea, 

 Scandinavia, and Russia, ranging as far east as the delta of the 

 Petchora, and probably to the mouth of the Yenesei (Popham). 

 Southward, no nesting-places are known on the Continent, except in 

 the north-west of France ; though the bird occurs in winter as far as 

 the Canaries, and is met with on the Mediterranean and Black 

 Seas, as well as on inland waters. Across the North Atlantic it is 

 found breeding in Danish Greenland up to lat. 68"^ N., and has 

 been observed in Baffin Bay ; while southward, it nests in Labrador, 

 Maine, and on some of the great inland lakes, visiting Florida, and 

 occasionally Bermuda in winter. The Bering and Okhotsk Seas are 

 frequented by L. schistisagiis of Stejneger, a species which is quite 

 as large as small specimens of L. /narinus, and is often nearly as 

 dark on the mantle ; and it was an example of this, from Northern 

 Japan, that I formerly referred to L. marinas. Dr. Stejneger's fine 

 species proves, however, to be closer to the Herring-Gull section of 

 the family; the next link in that direction being Z. vcgcr, which 

 inhabits the eastern coasts of Siberia and visits Japan and China in 

 winter. This last has a grey mantle, like Z. cachinimus, but its 

 tarsi and toes are flesh-coloured instead of bright yellow. 



The nest of the (ireat Black-backed (juU is frequently on some 

 isolated stack of rock or on an islet in a loch ; and the eggs, laid in 

 ]May, are never more than 3 and often only 2 in number ; their 

 colour is stone-buff, boldly blotched with dark grey and umber : 

 measurements 3 by z-\ in. Nothing in the way of animal food 

 comes amiss to this predacious species, whether it be sickly ewes, 

 weakly lambs, young or wounded water-fowl and game, eggs, or 

 carrion. The majestic flight, large size, and loud querulous note of 

 this species facilitate its recognition on the wing. 



The adult male has the plumage white, except the mantle, which 

 is black with a tinge of slate-colour ; the scapulars and secondaries 

 have white tips which form a strongly contrasted alar bar ; all the 

 primaries are broadly tipped with white, the first often for 3 in., 

 while the second has merely a black subterminal bar, and even the 

 third sometimes has a white spot ; the ' wedges ' on the inner webs 

 are greyish, as in the Herring-Gulls ; bill yellow, red at the angle ; 

 iris red; legs and feet flesh-colour. Length of a male 28-30 in., 

 wing 19-20 in. The female is smaller, and has a less robust bill. 

 The young bird is paler in ground-colour than immature Z. argen- 

 tatus, and has more sharply defined mottlings. The white mirror 

 on the outer primary is shown long before mature plumage is 

 assumed. 



