BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 169 



for my camera and myself on a small island in a 

 Hebridean loch and covered it over with heather. 

 Two or three days afterwards I found that several 

 Herring Gulls had stolen my thatch and made 

 their nests with it. 



Eggs. Two or three, varying in ground-colour 

 from olive-green to huffish-brown, spotted and 

 blotched with dark brown and grey. Variable, and 

 bearing a very close resemblance to the eggs of 

 the Lesser Black-backed Gull, but said to run 

 larger by some authorities, and to be more spotted 

 and less blotched. The fishermen reckon to dis- 

 tinguish them from those of the above-mentioned 

 species by the paler ground-colour of the shell ; 

 but the only sure method of identification I have 

 found is to watch the parent bird on to her nest. 

 Average size about 2.85 by 2.0 in. (See Plate X.) 



Time. May and June. 



Remarks. Resident. Call-notes, hau-hau-hau ; 

 alarm, ky-eok. Local or other name : none. Sits 

 lightly, and watches the intruder closely from a 

 distance of eighty or a hundred yards. A terrible 

 egg-stealer. 



HERRING GULLS AT HOME. 



