PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 127 



both on inland lakes and bogs as well as on marine islands. It breeds both on 

 the Scillies and the Channel Isles. On the Continent it breeds on the western 

 coasts of France, but it has not been found nesting on the coast of Portugal, 

 though Lilford and Irby state that a few breed on the rocky island of Alboran, 

 near Marocco, and a pale form is said to breed on the Azores. It is common 

 on the Norwegian coast, and also in Sweden and the shores of Finland, but 

 scarce in the Russian Baltic provinces. In Russia its breeding-range also 

 includes the Murman coast, the White Sea, Lakes Ladoga and Onega, and the 

 St. Petersburg government, but further east it is replaced by L. fuscus affinis. In 

 winter many stay with us, but others range southward to the Mediterranean, 

 where they visit the N. African coast from Egypt to Marocco, and also occur 

 on the west side of Africa to the Canaries, Senegal and Bonny. It also visits the 

 Red Sea and Persian Gulf. [F. c. R. j.] 



3. Migration. A resident and a summer visitor. In autumn a regular 

 southerly movement takes place, and the northern coasts of our islands are prac- 

 tically forsaken. That the movement extends beyond the southern limits of our 

 area is shown by the case of a young bird of this species, marked on the Fame 

 Islands, Northumberland, in June 1909, being recovered in the early winter of the 

 same year near Olhao, Portugal (Country Life, November 27, 1909, and December 

 11, 1909). On our southern coasts the species is found all the year round, although 

 more generally distributed in winter. [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. Although occasionally nesting on cliffs and broken 

 ground, this species shows a decided preference for the vegetation-covered tops of 

 islands and moors or bogs inland. The nest is much like that of the herring-gull, but 

 it is not so neatly finished, and is made of similar materials, heather twigs, moss, bits 

 of seaweed, and dead grasses. (PI. XLV.) Naumann implies that both sexes take part 

 in providing material. The eggs are normally two, or more usually three, in number, 

 and clutches of four and five are probably due to two hens laying in one nest. 

 They vary a good deal in colour, but usually range from light stone colour to deep 

 olive or umber-brown, with blackish brown spots and blotches and underlying shell- 

 marks of light inky purple. Greenish tinted eggs are rarely found, and are not 

 nearly so common as with the herring-gull, but a pale blue variety, with almost 

 obsolete markings, is sometimes met with. (PI. I.) Average size of 100 eggs, 

 2-63 x 1-84 in. [66'8 x 46'7 mm.]. They are thus on the average smaller than the 

 eggs of the herring-gull, but the measurements of the two species overlap. Both 

 sexes take part in incubation, which, according to Mr. Paynter, lasts for 21 days, 



