PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 123 



the primaries are of a dark brownish black. As they approach maturity, the two 

 species can more easily be determined by the appearance of the mantle colouring, 

 but at this stage the young of L. argentatus have the major coverts brown "marbled" 

 with greyish white, while in L. fuscus, of approximately the same age, these coverts 

 are conspicuously barred with greyish buff. The adult dress takes four or five 

 years for its completion, hence the immature phases cannot be accurately described, 

 owing to the gradual character of the transformation. The young in down have 

 the ground-colour somewhat paler buff than the young of L. fuscus, and the dark 

 spots and bars on the head and neck smaller and more sharply defined, spots 

 dominating : the markings on the throat are less conspicuous, but there is a more 

 or less distinct black bar along the fore-arm which is not present in the young of 

 L. fuscus. In very young nestlings of L. argentatus the markings on the back are 

 fairly well defined, [w. p. P.] 



2. Distribution. This species is more generally distributed along the 

 coasts of the British Isles than any other of our breeding gulls, and is found almost 

 everywhere except where the coast is flat, as in Lincolnshire and East Anglia. 

 From Kent to Dorset it is the only large species of gull which nests regularly, though 

 a single instance of the breeding of the lesser blackback in Kent has recently been 

 recorded. On other parts of our coasts the two species are to be found breeding 

 side by side, not only on the mainland, but on all the principal islands, including 

 the Orkneys, Shetlands, Faeroes, and Outer Hebrides. In Ireland it is very common 

 all round the coast, and one colony exists on a bog in Antrim. On the Continent 

 it is said to breed on the Berlengas off the coast of Portugal, and also near Vigo, 

 while it also nests commonly on the coasts of north-west France and the Channel 

 Isles. Colonies are also to be found in the dunes of Holland and on the west and 

 North Frisian Isles ; on Sylt especially enormous numbers used to breed. It is 

 also not uncommon on the Jylland coast and in the Kattegat, and is abundant 

 on the Norwegian coast to East Finmark. In the Baltic it nests on the Swedish 

 coasts and by the great lakes ; also on the coast of Finland, Lake Ladoga, the 

 Russian Baltic provinces, and on the northern shores of Germany. In the Medi- 

 terranean, and from the Black Sea and N. Russia eastward, and the Atlantic Isles, 

 it is replaced by the yellow-legged form, L. argentatus cachinnans, but it breeds in 

 Greenland, Baffin's Bay and Parry Islands, though replaced in other parts of N. 

 America by L. argentatus smithsonianus. In winter its range extends to the Medi- 

 terranean basin and the coasts of N. Africa, but many stay with us. American 

 birds winter in the Gulf of Mexico and the West Indies. [F. c. B. J.] 



