472 LARiaE. 



a species, and is most frequently observed to be solitary, or 

 in pairs only. Dr. Turner, who wrote on British ornithology 

 nearly three hundred years ago, calls this Gull a Cob, and 

 on the flat shores of Kent and Essex, at the mouth of the 

 Thames, where this bird remains all the year, it is still called 

 a Cob, which term, as mentioned in the history of our Mute 

 Swan, vol. iii. page 180, has reference to its large size. 



About the estuary of the Thames, in the counties men- 

 tioned above, the Great Black-backed Gull is decidedly a 

 marsh breeder, both male and female assisting in the forma- 

 tion of their grassy nest, and driving all other birds, friends 

 or foes, from the vicinity of the chosen spot. The female 

 lays three eggs of large size, measuring three inches two lines 

 in length, by two inches and four lines in breadth ; the 

 general colour yellowish-brown, tinged with green, sparingly 

 spotted with slate-grey and dark brown. The food of this 

 species is fish, and any animal matter ; it will kill and eat 

 small birds, and has been known to destroy weak lambs ; it 

 is bold as well as strong, and, if wounded, will make a re- 

 solute defence against capture. Its flight is powerful, and 

 sustained without much apparent effort ; it is also frequently 

 seen at the edge of the water, or, like other Gulls, swimming 

 buoyantly on its surface, supported by the mass of feathers 

 with which the body is invested. 



The Great Black-backed Gull, according to Mr. Thomp- 

 son, is a resident species in Ireland ; it is found in Wales, 

 being observed by Montagu in considerable abundance on 

 the extensive sandy flats of the coast of Caermarthenshire ; 

 breeds on the steep holmes, and Lundy island in the Bristol 

 Channel, and has been shot in winter as high up the Severn 

 as Worcester. It is found in Cornwall and in Devonshire. 

 The Rev. Robert Holdsworth sent me word that, from an egg 

 of this species, taken off" the Bolt Headland by some of the 

 crew of the Vigilant, excise-cutter, and kept in a blanket 



