AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 239 



" vermin " even than the Grey Crow ; and certainly 

 in my own experience of the present species both in 

 a state of nature and in captivity, nothing in the 

 way of food seems to come amiss ; many of my 

 Herring-Gulls at Lilford have been adroit catchers of 

 Sparrows, rats, and mice. 



207. LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. 



Larus fuscus. 



As most of the large Gulls that visit our valley in 

 the autumn and winter are in immature plumage, 

 and very few of them are shot, or even shot at, in 

 our neighbourhood, and as in this plumage it is 

 virtually impossible to distinguish the present species 

 on wing from the Herring-Gull, it is of course very 

 difficult to pronounce positively on the scarcity or 

 abundance of the present bird in our county ; but 

 from my own experience, I am inclined to consider 

 the Lesser Black-backed Gull in adult plumage as 

 the least common of the six species of Lanes that 

 habitually frequent what I may call the mid Nen- 

 district. On looking through my journals I can only 

 find the following records of the capture of adult 

 birds of this species : — One shot from a small flock 

 flying over the Lilford Lynches in January 1849 ; a 

 second (of which I was informed by the Rev. H. H. 

 Slater of Irchester Vicarage) killed at Knuston 

 on April 28, 1888, and recorded by me in the 

 ' Zoologist ' for December of that year ; and lastly 

 a female in beautiful plumage shot from a flock 

 of four flying over Lilford Wood on August 4, 

 1891, and now preserved here. I may take this 



