PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 121 



it is now known to breed in Co. Sligo (where it was first discovered in 1855), as 

 well as in counties Mayo, Donegal, and Galway, and on one of the Blaskets (Co. 

 Kerry). On the Continent it formerly nested on Texel, and a single pair bred in 

 West Holland in 1909. Eastward it breeds on the East Frisian Islands (Rottum and 

 the Memmert), the North Frisian Isles (Ellenbogen and Amrum), in some numbers 

 in Jylland, Denmark ; on the Langenwerder in Mecklenburg, and in the Russian 

 Baltic provinces and the coasts of Finland. Throughout Scandinavia it is common, 

 and in Russia its range extends from the Lapland coasts and the Kola and Kanin 

 Peninsulas southward ; while its most southerly breeding-places are at the mouth 

 of the Don and in Transcaucasia and Transcaspia according to Buturlin. In Asia 

 it breeds in the basins of all the great Siberian rivers up to about 67-70, and 

 on the Amur to Kamchatka. In western North America it is replaced by an 

 allied race. The winter range of this species includes the coasts of Central 

 Europe and the Mediterranean basin, while it has occurred in the Canaries and in 

 the Nile Valley as well as in the Persian Gulf, and has strayed to Iceland and 

 Labrador. Asiatic birds range to Japan and China. [F. c. R. J.] 



3. Migration. Resident. To what extent migratory movement exists can 

 only be conjectured, and all that can be said with certainty is that the species 

 becomes generally distributed in winter, and visits England and other regions in 

 which it does not breed. Immigration to Ireland from Great Britain is considered 

 probable (cf. Ussher and Warren, B. of Ireland, 1900, p. 332). [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. This gull breeds by preference on low grassy islands, 

 the grassy tops of low cliffs, and the sloping shores of lochs, avoiding precipitous 

 cliffs and rocky coast-lines. The nests are also found high up in the hills, at an 

 elevation of 2000 feet (Harvie-Brown, Fauna of the Tay Basin, p. 340a ; Fauna of 

 the Moray Basin, p. 215). They are generally to be found in colonies, and are 

 substantially built of heather twigs, seaweed, dry bents, rushes, etc., as a rule, 

 though occasionally very little material is used to line the nest-hollow. In Scandi- 

 navia and the N. Baltic it has been known to place its nest in a coniferous tree, and 

 to take possession of an old hooded-crow's nest. (PI. XLV.) The eggs are normally 

 three in number, and the clutches of five and six eggs, which have been recorded 

 from Sylt and elsewhere, are probably the produce of two hens. In shape they are a 

 much broader oval than those of the blackheaded-gull. The ground-colour varies 

 from ochreous to dark olive-brown, and the markings consist of spots, blotches, 

 and streaks of deep blackish brown, with underlying ashy shell-marks. Some 

 varieties have the ground pale greenish or even light blue, and in such cases the 



VOL. III. Q 



