LESSER BLACK-BACKED CULL. 293 



Family LARID^E. Genus Larus. 



Sub-family LARINyE. 



LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. 



Larus fuscus, Linnieus. 

 Single Brooded. Laying season, May and June. 



British breeding area : The Lesser Black-backed 

 Gull is very commonly and widely distributed through- 

 out the British Islands in all suitable districts. These, 

 however, nowhere occur in the east of England south of 

 the Tyne and east of Devonshire. It breeds in Devon, 

 Cornwall, Wales, the Isle of Man, Cumberland, North- 

 umberland (including the Fame Islands), and in 

 Scotland up to the Orkneys and the Shetlands in the 

 north, and to the Hebrides in the west. In Ireland 

 it is extremely local, and only breeds in one or two 

 localities. 



Breeding habits : The Lesser Black-backed Gull is 

 a resident in the British Islands, but subject to much 

 local movement during the non-breeding season, and 

 most of the birds inhabiting the extreme northern 

 districts draw south in winter. Its .breeding-grounds 

 embrace a great variety of situations. The favourite 

 haunts are low rocky islands which contain plenty of 

 herbage; rock-stacks, and islands in inland lakes, grassy 

 downs, mosses, and flows. This Gull is remarkably 

 gregarious, and usually breeds in more or less extensive 

 colonics — one of the most extensive known to me being 

 on the Fame Islands. The bird may probably pair for 

 life, as season by season the same breeding-place is used. 

 The nest of this species varies a good deal in size, even 

 in the same colony of birds. As a rule it is a somewhat 

 bulky structure, often placed amongst a bed of campion 



