Their Eggs and Nests. 191 



of the cliff, but will sometimes build on a low rock or 

 grassy island. The nest is like that of the last species, 

 but even larger, and usually contains three eggs. 

 These so strongly resemble those of the Lesser Black- 

 back as to make it very difficult to distinguish be- 

 tween the one and the other. Mr. Hewitson says the 

 only means of distinction available even to an ex- 

 perienced eye seems to depend on the somewhat greater 

 size of the Herring Gull's ^g^, and the larger and 

 more confluent character of the blotches of surface 

 colour. — Fig. 4, plate XII. 



LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL— (Z^r?/i- fusciis). 



Yellow-legged Gull. — This Gull is seen in sufficient 

 numbers, and all the year round, on many parts of 

 the British coasts, and in the south as well as the 

 north. It almost exclusively prefers localities to breed 

 in which are characterised by the presence of rocky 

 cliffs, but yet makes a nest of some considerable 

 thickness — even when placed on the grassy summit 

 of some rocky island — " of grass loosely bundled to- 

 gether in large pieces, and placed in some slight 

 depression or hollow of the rock." Its nests are 

 intermingled, in several places, with those of the 

 Herring Gull ; in many places greatly exceeding those 

 of the latter, in others as greatly inferior, in number. 

 The eggs (two or three in number) vary greatly in 

 colouring, — from a warm stone-colour, through shades 

 of brown, to pale green or light olive-green. The 

 spots and blotches vary too, and vary greatly, in 

 number, size, position, and intensity ; neutral-tint, 

 chestnut brown, and dark brown being all met with, 



