COMMON GULL. 295 



' Family LARID^E. Genus LARUS. 



Sub-family LARIN^E. 



COMMON GULL. 



LARUS CANUS, Linnaus. 



Single Brooded. Laying season, latter half of May and 

 early June. 



BRITISH BREEDING AREA: The Common Gull has 

 little claim to its trivial name, for it is one of our most 

 local birds during the breeding season. It is not now 

 known to breed anywhere in England, although it 

 formerly did so in Lancashire. In Scotland, however, 

 it nests in the Solway district, and thence northwards, 

 both on the coasts and in many inland districts, it is widely 

 distributed, reaching the Orkneys and the Shetlands 

 in the north and the Hebrides in the west, but becoming 

 rarer in the east. In Ireland it is somewhat local, but 

 certainly breeds in Counties Donegal, Sligo, and Mayo, 

 and on the Blaskets, off the coast of Kerry. 



BREEDING HABITS : The Common Gull is a resident 

 in the British Islands, but subject to much local and 

 southern movement after the breeding season. Its breed- 

 ing-places are varied, and occur both inland and on the 

 coast. Sometimes a locality is chosen on a small island 

 in a mountain lake, or the summit of a stack of rocks, 

 or a marshy tract on the banks of a lake, or even grassy 

 downs by the sea. But the most extensive colonies of 

 this Gull that I have ever seen in our islands were situated 

 on rocky islets in deep sea-water lochs in the Hebrides. 

 In some of these wild, secluded lochs almost every island 

 contained a colony, some of only a few pairs, others 

 larger. The main colony was on a rather low island, 

 which sloped up from a sandy beach, and fell here and 



