428 LARID AG 
Herring-Gull begins like @é-dw, @-dw, and presently changes 
into @a-é@a-éd-éa, or cléé-d, cléé-d, cléi-cléa-éu-éu-éa-éa. The 
immature birds utter a prolonged squeak. 
Nest.—This is one of the most abundant and widely- 
distributed breeding-species round the British coast. It 
assembles in great colonies, but the nests, as a rule, are 
not in very close proximity, like those of Black-headed 
or Kittiwake Gulls. The breeding-haunts are on rocky 
and broken ground, in situations difficult of access, as where 
a talus occurs midway up the sea-cliffs, or on the sides and 
tops of precipitous marine islands, but less frequently on 
narrow ledges; a very minor number of birds select in- 
land marshes, while abroad they have been found building 
in trees. The nests are usually surrounded by scanty vege- 
tation, such as grasses and tufts of thrift, which are also 
utilised as building- materials. The eggs, normally three 
in number, vary in ground-colour from olive to yellowish- 
brown, sometimes to greenish-blue, and are blotched with 
dark brown. Incubation begins about the middle of May. 
The young, while still in the downy stage, quit their 
nests and seek shelter among crevices and herbage. 
Geographical distribution. —Abroad, the Herring-Gull is 
widely distributed in the breeding-season over Temperate 
and Northern Europe to the west of the White Sea, also 
over North America from the Arctic Regions to lat. 40° N. 
In autumn and winter it can be traced along the western 
sea-board of Europe down to the Mediterranean ; eastward, 
to the Black and Caspian Seas. Along the American coasts 
it migrates as far south as the Bermudas on the Atlantic 
side, and California on the Pacific side. 
DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 
PLUMAGE. Adult male nuptial..—Head, neck, breast, 
abdomen, and tail, white; back and wings, pale ‘ french ’ 
grey; scapulars and secondaries, broadly tipped with white; 
outer primaries, chiefly black with white tips, large white 
‘eyes,’ and pale grey inner webs; other primaries, chiefly 
grey with white tips. 
Adult female nuptial.— Similar in plumage to the male. 
1 T have seen Herring-Gulls in captivity retain their adult nuptial 
dress throughout the entire winter. 
