LARIDA. 603 
The eggs are of a dark olive-brown, spotted with 
darker brown and black: they are a little smaller 
than those of the Herring Gull. 
Less—eR BuAcKBACKED Guu, Larus fuscus. Al- 
though we are not far from Lundy Island, one of its 
breeding stations, this bird is by no means numerous 
on our coast: occasional specimens, however, both of 
old and young birds, may be seen there. It does not 
appear to me to be anywhere so common as the Her- 
ring Gull, with which it occasionally mixes, both at 
the breeding stations and when in search of food. 
At none of the large breeding stations which I have 
been able to visit, such as Lundy Island and the 
Channel Islands, especially Sark and Alderney, have 
I ever seen the present species in anything like the 
numbers of the Herring Gulls; I should say about 
one pair to fifty of the ‘‘ Herringers.” The Lesser 
Blackbacked Guils appeared to place their nests 
much in the same situation as the Herring Gulls— 
among the crags on the cliffs; but Mr. Walker, in the 
‘Zoologist’ for 1868 (S.8., p. 1371), says the Lesser 
Blackbacked Gulls breed on the dome of Ailsa, 
amongst the broken fern and campion leaves. ‘The 
nests are difficult to find; they are generally made at 
the foot of a rock or stone in a slight depression in 
the ground, and lined with leaves and dry grass. 
This Gull is easily kept in confinement, and 
may be fed on almost anything. Dr. Saxby, in 
the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1865 (p. 9402) says of one thus 
oF2 
