BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



167 



HERRING GULL. 



GULL, HERRING. 



(Larus argentatus.) 

 Order GAVLE ; Family LARID.E (GULLS). 



Description of Parent Birds. 

 Length about twenty-four 

 inches. Bill of medium length, 

 hooked at the tip, and yellow, 

 with an orange spot on the 

 lower mandible. Irides pale 

 yellow. Head and neck white. 

 Back and part of wings light 

 grey, which distinguishes the 

 bird from the Lesser Black- 

 backed Gull ; quills blackish, 

 tipped with white. Breast, 

 belly, vent, upper tail-coverts and tail-quills 

 pure white. Legs and feet flesh-colour. Variable 

 with age. 



The female is often much smaller than the male, 

 but is similar in the coloration of her plumage. 



Situation and Locality. Ledges of sea cliffs, 

 low rocky islands, sometimes in marshes, such as 

 Foulshaw Moss in Westmorland. At the Fame 

 Islands a few pairs only of Herring Gulls breed 

 amongst the great crowd of Lesser Black-backed 

 Gulls, but on islands in Hebridean lochs the case 

 is absolutely reversed, the former far outnumbering 

 the latter. 



Materials. Seaweed and turf, lined with grass, 

 sometimes in liberal quantities, at others very scant, 

 or absent altogether. The grass used appears to 

 have often been obtained quite green. In the 

 summer of 1905 I built a hiding structure of stones 



