GAVIJS. ( 286 ) LARID^. 



THE GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. 



BLACK-BACK, CAKKION GULL, GULL MAW. 



Larus marinus. 



The sea-birds shriek above the prey, 

 O'er which their hungry beaks delay. 



Byron. 



This large Gull is occasionally seen on the Berwickshire 

 seaboard, chiefly in the neighbourhood of St. Abb's Head, 

 but it is not found breeding on any part of the coast of the 

 county at the present time. Mr. Archibald Hepburn, in his 

 " Notes on some of the Birds found at St. Abb's Head in 

 June 1851," says : " The boatman informed me that a single 

 pair of the Great Black-backed Gull {Larus marinus) breeds 

 annually on the Flood Carr,^ adjoining the Skelly Kock. The 

 Bass can likewise boast of one or two pairs of these noble 

 birds." 2 About 1855 Mr. Wilson of Coldingham gave Mr. 

 Hardy a list of birds which were then found at St. Abb's 

 Head, and in it this species is mentioned as frequenting 

 that locality, but seldom nesting there. 



The large size, black back, and loud harsh cry of this 

 Gull easily distinguish it from any of its congeners. Its 

 flight is very powerful, and it seldom allows itself to be 

 approached within gunshot, being very wary. It feeds on 

 fish, carrion, and garbage thrown on shore by the tide ; it is 

 also very destructive to eggs, and robs the nests of Guille- 

 mots and other birds. 



1 Called also Flot Carr. - Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. iii. p. 74. 



