PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 125 



plants, dry seaweed, etc., lined usually with dry grass and an occasional feather, 

 and both sexes take part in the work of construction. (PI. XLV.) The eggs are 

 normally two, or more frequently three, in number, but four have been occasionally 

 found in a nest which had the appearance of a clutch, while in large colonies in- 

 stances of five and even six eggs in a nest have been recorded by Leverkiihn and 

 others, but are almost certainly the produce of more than one bird. They vary 

 a good deal in colour and markings : most eggs range from stone colour to olive- 

 brown or greenish in ground-colour, but exceptionally they may be found with an 

 almost white or distinctly blue ground. The markings consist of spots, blotches, 

 or irregular streaks of dark umber-brown, and light inky purple shell-marks. In 

 rare cases the markings are almost obsolete. A beautiful and scarce type, which, 

 however, has not occurred in the British Isles, is the well-known erythristic or red 

 egg, with sienna-red spots distributed over the surface on a warm whitish ground. 

 (PL I.) Average size of 104 eggs, 2'7xl'9 in. [69x49 '4 mm.]. Incubation is 

 performed by both sexes, but chiefly by the hen, the cock-bird mounting guard 

 close at hand. There is some discrepancy as to the period. An egg hatched 

 under a hen on the 26th day (W. Evans), and Naumann gives the period as nearly 

 four weeks, but Mr. Paynter estimates it only as 21 days from observations at 

 the Fames. The breeding season begins in the last days of April and the first 

 week of May in Ireland and S. England, and rather later in Scotland ; and though 

 fresh eggs may be found as late as June and even July, it is probable that only one 

 brood is normally reared. [F. c. B. J.] 



5. Food. Practically omnivorous. Fish (live and dead), small mammals, 

 small birds, the young and eggs of larger birds, insects, worms, crustaceans, molluscs, 

 garbage (floating and other), all form part of its dietary. The young are fed doubt- 

 less by both parents, but exact information as to the nature of the food given is 

 lacking. [F. B. K.] 



LESSER BLACKS ACKED- GULL [Larus fuscus Linnaeus. 

 Cob, parson-mew ; saithe-fowl (Shetlands). French, goeland d pieds jaunes ; 

 German, Herings-Move ; Italian, zafferano]. 



I. Description. This gull, when adult, is readily distinguished from the 

 great blackbacked-gull on the one hand and the herring-gull on the other by its 

 smaller size and by the slate-grey back and yellow legs and toes. The sexes are 

 alike, and there is a slight seasonal change of coloration. (PL 105.) Length 22 in. 



