v 6 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



Family LARID/E. Subfamily LARINsE. 



COMMON GULL. 



Larus canus, LINN. 



THE Common Gull is to be found on all our coasts during the autumn and 

 winter; but not alone on the coasts, for it is to be seen often far inland, 

 quite fifty miles from the sea. During the summer no nesting birds are to be 

 met with south of the Scottish border ; for its breeding places are confined to 

 Scotland and Ireland, although, according to Seebohni, it once bred and it may 

 do so again on the Lancashire coast. In the former country it occupies suitable 

 places from the Solway to the Shetland Isles, and from Aberdeenshire to the 

 Outer Hebrides. In Ireland it is to be seen all round the coast at every season, 

 except during the breeding time, when it is much rarer, as the majority of them go 

 inland to nest. 



The distribution of the Common Gull beyond our boundaries extends across 

 Europe and Asia, north of the 5oth parallel of north latitude ; "on the Pacific 

 side from Kamtschatka to Japan and China" (Saunders). In the winter mouths 

 it migrates southward as far as the Mediterranean shores, the Persian Gulf and 

 into North Africa; some individuals, however, invariably remain throughout the 

 winter in localities near their breeding stations. 



It does not occur on the western hemisphere, where its place is taken by a 

 nearly allied species ; but one young specimen of Larus canus has, it is recorded, 

 been taken in Labrador, whither it may have got driven from Iceland where the 

 species occurs sparingly. 



The Common Gull varies very much in size throughout its range; as a rule, 

 however, the female is slightly smaller than the male ; but the seasonal plumages 

 of both sexes are alike. During the breeding season the head, the neck, the upper 

 tail-coverts, the tail and the whole under surface, including the under wing-coverts 

 and axillaries, are pure white ; the eye is set off by a scarlet ring ; the mantle, 

 the back, and the general colour of the wings, is delicate French-grey ; the outer- 

 most primary black, grey at the base, with a white sub-terminal bar ; the next 

 similar, but the bar smaller; the third also black, with a still smaller bar or 

 rather spot the bases of all three increasingly grey; on the remaining primaries 



