LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. 319 



LARUS FUSCUS. 

 LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. 



(Plate 51.) 



Larus griseus, Briss. Orn. vi. p. 102 (1760). 



Larus fiiscus, Linn. Si/st. Nat. i. p. 22o (176G) ; et auctorum plurimorum — 



Nauman)), Teimnmck, Dresser, Saunders, &c. 

 Lai'us flavipes, Meyer, Taschenb. ii. p. 469 (1810). 

 Lencus fuscus (Linn.), Kaup, Natilrl. St/st. p. 86 (1829). 

 Dominicanus fuscus (Linn.), Bruch, Jotcrn. Orn. 1853, p. 100. 

 Clupeilarus fuscus {Linn.), Bonap. Consp. ii. p. 220 (1857). 

 Larus argeutatus, Gmel. apud Montaf/n, Leach, Forster, &c. 



The Lesser Black-backed Crull is a resident in the British Islands. In 

 Scotland^ and in England north of the Tyne, it breeds both on the islands 

 of inland lakes and on the coasts of the mainland. In the Orkneys it is a 

 resident, but to the Shetlands, the Hebrides^ and to the extreme north of the 

 mainland it is only a summer visitor. Immature birds are seen on the 

 rest of our coasts at all times of the year; but during the breeding-season the 

 distribution of the adult birds is very local south of the Tyne. There are 

 no breeding-places on the east coast south of the Fame Islands, and none 

 on the south coast east of Devonshire. On the west coast it breeds in 

 various localities in Wales, Devonshire, and Cornwall. In Ireland very 

 few breeding-places are known. 



The Lesser Black-backed Gull has a very restricted range, being confined 

 to the shores of Western Europe and North Africa. There is no reliable 

 evidence that it ever occurs in the White Sea; but it breeds throughout the 

 coasts of Scandinavia, the shores of the Baltic and the North Seas, the 

 coasts of France and Spain, and the shores of the Mediterranean, Black, 

 and Red Seas. In the extreme north of its range it is a migratory bird, 

 and wanders in winter as far as the Canaries and the coasts of West Africa. 

 There is no reliable evidence of its having occurred as far east as the 

 Caspian Sea *. 



The Lesser Black-backed Gull has no ally nearer than Larus occidentalis, 

 which is confined to the Pacific coast of North America from Vancouver's 

 Island to Lower California, and which is a slightly larger bird, with a 

 stouter bill, flesh-coloured legs, and larger feet. 



* Dresser, in liis ' Birds of Europe,' represents the distribution of this Gull as extending 

 to the Pacific. It is much to be regi'etted that in his articles on the Siberian and 

 Yellow-legged Herring-Gulls he had not the courage to correct his previous blunders. 



