THE COMMON GULL. 277 



excursion in July 1832, having taken its departure from 

 those haunts previous to our visit, the Common Gull (Larus 

 Canus), which breeds in great numbers on the rock to the 

 south of the Head, being the only species then visible." 3 



Mr. Archibald Hepburn, in his " Notes on some of the 

 Mammalia and Birds found at St. Abb's Head," writes : " On 

 the 20th of June last [1851], accompanied by my friend, 

 Mr. Eobert H. Broughton, I hired a boat at Coldingham 

 Shore to visit St. Abb's, for the purpose of procuring speci- 

 mens of birds and making observations on their habits and 

 distribution along the coast. No Common Gulls (Larus 

 Canus) breed about the Head, but there is a most extensive 

 colony on the Ernesheugh, about two miles to the westward ; 

 their nests are placed on the grassy ledges ; and although 

 these birds abound on the eastern shores of East-Lothian 

 and Berwickshire throughout the year, yet this is the only 

 breeding place known to me in the south-east of Scotland." 2 



Mr. Howard Saunders, in vol. iii. of the revisal of 

 Yarrell's British Birds, 1882-84, pp. 613, 614, says with 

 reference to the breeding of the Common Gull (Larus Canus) 

 on the coasts of England: " During the summer the 'common' 

 species are either the Herring Gull or the Kittiwake ; and, 

 without making any dogmatic assertions, the editor can 

 safely say that during the past twenty years in which his 

 attention has been given to the question, he has failed to 

 obtain any proof whatever of the nesting of Larus Canus on 

 any part of the English coast. Nor is the evidence satis- 

 factory as to the asserted nesting of this species in the cliffs 

 of St. Abb's Head, or, indeed, in any precipitous cliffs what- 

 ever, in the ordinary acceptation of the words. The Common 

 Gull selects, as a rule, the comparatively low shores of small 

 islands, either on the sea-coast or up the arms of the sea ; 

 and it is also partial to grassy islands in lochs ; but although 



i Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. i. p. 21. 2 Ibid. vol. iii. p. 75. 



