338 BIRDS OP NORFOLK. 



herrings on tlie beach, were allowed to float away, and 

 all their refuse was thrown overboard as the easiest way 

 of getting rid of it. In consequence, as I have heard 

 the old beachmen say, gulls at such time swarmed, and 

 no doubt many a rarity was overlooked — there were not 

 so many ' educated ' slaughterers as now. Also there 

 are not the same numbers of fish inshore now as then ; 

 mackerel, gurnards, and haddocks have almost forsaken 

 us. With heavy north-west and northerly gales we get 

 our rarer gulls, blown, I take it, in this direction out of 

 their usual course by stress of weather." 



In confinement nothing in the shape of food comes 

 amiss to this and the next two species of gull ; a mouse 

 dead or alive is a favourite morsel ; a rat even, after 

 being shaken in water, is swallowed whole, and on one 

 occasion I found the sole survivor of a brood of young 

 French partridges, which disappeared in a mysterious 

 way, on the point of being swallowed by a tame lesser 

 black-backed gull. 



Owing, probably, to want of acquaintance with the 

 various stages of plumage which the larger gulls assume 

 ere they reach matui'ity, the early authorities appear to 

 have regarded this species as much less frequent than it 

 really is. Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear simply cata- 

 logue the Laridce, giving no information except with 

 regard to the black-headed gull and the skuas ; 

 Hunt, in his " List " appears to regard the lesser 

 black-backed gull as a great rarity, so much so that 

 he remarks, " a specimen of this rare gull was shot 

 near Yarmouth ; " the Pagets also evidently regarded 

 it in the same light, for they designate it as " rare," 

 and add that there were " two shot April, 1821 ; " 

 doubtless both these observations refer to the adult 

 bird only. Mr. Lubbock, I think, errs in the other 

 extreme when he states that this species and the her- 

 ring gull " are perhaps the most common of the larger 

 species here," but Messrs Gurney and Fisher form a 

 much more accurate estimate, observing that it " occurs 

 on the coast throughout the year, except during the 

 nesting season ; but not in large numbers." In the 

 immature plumage it is certainly not rare, especially in 

 autumn, but adults are decidedly uncommon. It is diflB- 



