604 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
kept in Shetland for upwards of twenty-two years 
that anything that was eatable seemed to suit her 
appetite, even oatmeal porridge was not refused, and 
fish, raw meat, birds and mice never seemed to come 
amiss. This tame Gull used regularly to make a 
nest and sit upon it for some short time, but had not 
the same amiable propensity for hatching other birds’ 
eggs and bringing up the young ones as the Buzzard 
mentioned at p. 25, for if eggs were given her she 
» Invariably ate them. 
In a wild state the food of the Lesser Blackbacked 
Gull consists principally of fish; but, according to 
Yarrell, both the young and old birds go inland to 
search moist pastures or recently-ploughed fields for 
worms, insects and their grubs. It also steals the 
egos of the Guillemot, Razorbill and other birds in- 
habiting the rocks: probably this propensity in the 
various sorts of Gulls is one reason why the other 
rock birds usually have their breeding station a little 
separate from them: I have never seen them actually 
mixed together, even at Lundy, where space is hmited, 
and the various species of birds very numerous. 
The plumage of this Gull varies much, aecording 
to the age of the bird. In the young bird the bill is 
black; irides dark brown; the head and neck streaked 
pale brown and white; the back and scapulars are 
dullish white, much barred and mottled with brown ; 
the wing-coverts and tertials have more brown in 
them; the primary quills are dusky brown, some of 
