LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. 69 



Habits.— Both in the breeduig season and during the autumn 

 and winter the present species is gregarious, and. even in the 

 height of summer, small flocks of the Lesser Black-backed Gull 

 may be observed on the flat and open shores of our south- 

 eastern coasts — evidently non-breeding birds. It is decidedly 

 the Gull most in evidence on our coasts, excepting the Black- 

 headed Gull, and is easily procured by any gunner who lies up 

 for it as it flies inland to the ploughed fields or fallow. Like 

 other Gulls, its principal food consist of fish, but it will often 

 be found following the plough, and is frecjuently to be observed 

 among the shipping on tidal rivers. " It is a wonderful sight," 

 says Seebohm, "on approaching one of the Fame Islands, to 

 see the green mass sprinkled all over with large white-looking 

 birds, every one standing head to wind, like innumerable 

 weathercocks ; and it is still more wonderful, when a shot is 

 fired, to see the flutter of white wings as every bird rises in 

 haste, and to hear the angry cries which each bird makes as 

 soon as the exertion of getting fairly launched into the air is 

 over, and it finds breath enough to scream defiance to the 

 invader of its home. In half a minute thousands of birds are 

 flying backwards and forwards in every direction, like a living 

 snow-storm. The various cries of the birds almost exactly 

 resemble those of the Herring-Gull. The angry Kycok (which 

 sounds at a distance when the birds are quarrelling, like ak^ 

 aky ak), and the good-natured ha, ha, ha, or an, an, an, are 

 constantly heard." 



Nest. — A slovenly structure of dry grass and dead marine 

 plants and sea-weed. 



Eggs. — Three in number, occasionally four. A curious 

 instance of a nest with four eggs is to be seen in the Natural 

 History Museum. This nest 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. 



Mr. Robert Read writes to me: — "Three is the usual number 

 of eggs in one set, but I have taken four from a nest. In this 

 instance they were very heavily marked and evidently laid by 

 the same bird. The case in the Natural History Museum is 

 another instance of four eggs being found in a nest, although, 

 to judge from the eggs alone, one could not be certain that 



