148 GULL GROUP 



in winter as far as the Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian Seas in 

 the Old World, and to Florida and California in the New World. 

 It is during the winter migration alone that the species is seen in 

 the British Islands, where it is largely represented by immature 

 birds, which are more common in Scotland than on the southern 

 coasts of England. To Ireland it is described as an uncertain winter- 

 visitor, occurring only occasionally, and then in very small numbers ; 

 but in very cold winters it sometimes makes its appearance, as in 

 Scotland, in flocks. 



Owing apparently to its predaccous habits, this gull is known 

 locally on the Continent as the " burgomaster." It feeds alike on 

 young birds, fish, crabs, etc., and garbage of all kinds. Although in 

 Norway it breeds on precipitous cliffs, at the Petchora embouchure, 

 north-eastern Russia, it has been found nesting on low sandy islands 

 but little above high-water mark. In the latter locality, as well as 

 on Kolguev Island, near the mouth of the White Sea, the nests have 

 been described as little more than heaps of sand — often accumulated 

 round drift-timber, mingled with masses of seaweed and zoophytes, 

 the piles being sometimes as much as a couple of feet in height. In 

 slight depressions in the summits of these mounds are laid the three 

 eggs, which measure about 3 inches in length, and in colouring are 

 very like those of the lesser black-back, although in some instances 

 more sparsely marked. 



The white-winged gull may be distinguished from the herring-gull by 

 the very pale grey colour of the back and wings, and the white primaries ; 

 it closely resembles the following species, but differs in its much larger 

 size, as it measures 30 inches in length. The legs are bright pink, 

 the ring round the eyelid is vermilion, the eye yellow, and the beak 

 yellow, with an orange patch at the angle of the lower jaw. In winter 

 the head and neck are streaked with ash-grey. Young birds have 

 the beak pale brown at the base and dark horn at the top ; the head, 

 neck, back, and wing-coverts mottled with pale ash-brown and white, the 

 scapulars barred with pale brown and tipped with greyish white, the 

 quills pale yellowish grey, the tail yellowish brown, and the under- 

 parts dull white mottled with pale brown. In the next yc'ar the 

 mottlings become paler, fading before the final autumnal moult at the 

 end of the fourth year to creamy white. The chick resembles that 

 of the herring-gull but is paler. 



The greater white-winged is to a great extent a feeder on carrion, 

 and when engaged on the body of some dead animal or of a fish 

 cast up by the tide, exhibits great shyness, so that it can only be 



