170 BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



GULL, KITTIWAKE. See KITTIWAKE. 



GULL, LESSER BLACK-BACKED. 



(Larus fuscus.) 

 Order GAVLE ; Family LARHLE (GULLS). 



Description of Parent Birds. 

 Length about twenty - three 

 inches. Beak of medium length, 

 nearly straight, and yellow, with 

 the exception of an orange spot 

 on the under mandible. Irides 

 straw colour. Head and neck 

 all round pure white. Back and 

 wings dark slate-grey, some of 

 the quills being slightly tipped 

 LESSER BLACK- with white. Upper tail-coverts 



BACKED GULLS. ^ ., -,-, -, ., T-> 



and tail-quills white. Breast, 

 belly, vent, and under tail-coverts pure white. 

 Legs and feet yellow, whereas those of the Great 

 Black-backed Gull are flesh colour. 



The female is said to be a little smaller, and 

 the feathers of the back and wings to vary much 

 in tint with age and locality. 



Situation and Locality. On the ground, in 

 hollows scooped out of the soft turf, on grass 

 growing in nooks and on ledges of rock, on bare 

 rocks, and on masses of dry seaweed. Our illustra- 

 tions are from photographs taken on the Fame 

 Islands, where a large colony breeds. On low 

 rocky islands, ledges of cliffs, on islands in inland 

 lakes, and in moss-bogs. At nearly all suitable 

 places round our coasts, except on the eastern 

 and southern shores of England. 



