30 BRITISH: SEA. BIRDS. 
or in a hollow or chink of the cliffs; in a sheltered 
hollow of the grassy downs: or amongst the thick 
growth of sea campion, thrift, and other marine 
plants that often grow so luxuriantly in the bird’s 
haunts. I have remarked that the nest is usually 
larger when built on a cliff than when on the ground, 
and in some cases is almost dispensed with. It is 
composed of turf, dry sea-weed, coarse grass, and 
stalks of various marine plants, lined with finer 
grass often gathered green. The eggs are two or 
three in number, varying in ground colour from 
pale bluish-green through yellowish-brown to olive- 
brown, and the spots are small and few and dark 
brown, pale brown, and gray. This Gull will lay a 
second lot of eggs if the first clutch be taken, as 
they often are, for culinary purposes. When the 
nesting places are intruded upon by human visitors, 
the Gulls, as usual, become very noisy, the birds 
whose eggs are most directly threatened being 
filled with the greatest clamour. I have often 
remarked that Gulls whose nests were safe in in- 
accessible parts of the cliffs have remained quietly 
sitting on them, while their less fortunate neigh- 
bours have been filled with noisy alarm, as they 
watched the fate of their eggs from the air above. 
The note is very similar to that of the preceding 
species. 
COMMON GULL. 
This pretty Gull, the Larus canus of Linnzus, is, 
during the summer months especially, one of the 
