o)\\GULLS AND TERNS. 31 
most locally distributed of the British species. The 
Common Gull formerly bred in Lancashire, but at 
the present time is not known to do so anywhere in 
England. From the Solway northwards, it becomes 
tolerably common as a breeding species, right up to 
the Shetlands, in many inland localities, as well as 
on the coast. It is also a somewhat local bird in 
Ireland. The Common Gull, or ‘“ Blue Maa,” as it 
is locally known, is about half the size of the 
Herring Gull, with a mantle, in the adult, almost 
as dark as that of the Lesser Black-backed Gull. 
During the non-breeding season this Gull is fairly 
well distributed along the coast, and then visits 
localities where it is never seen in summer. It isa 
decided shore species, rarely wandering far out to 
sea, and is one of the first Gulls driven inland by 
stormy weather. Although popularly believed to 
be so inseparably associated with the sea, the Gulls, 
and especially the smaller kinds such as the one 
now under notice, often resort to fields even at 
some distance from the water. The Common Gull 
seems as much at home inland as on the shore. I 
have seen it on the high moorlands, and in Scotland 
flying about many a loch pool, or land-locked sea 
-arm; it is equally at home on the ploughed lands 
and the pastures, yet its plumage seems strangely 
out of place in such localities, and the incongruity 
is further intensified should the startled birds take 
refuge in a neighbouring tree, as they sometimes do. 
There is nothing specially remarkable about the 
