8a BRITISH BIRDS WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



fourth and fifth the same, the former greyer on both webs ; the sixth has no bar ; 

 the rest grey, with white tips ; the encroachment of the light portions upon the 

 dark ones increases with the age of the bird ; the grey wedge on the primaries 

 'is an important distinction between some closely allied species' "; bill rich yellow, 

 with a carmine spot at the angle of the lower mandible; ring round eyes yellow; 

 legs and feet flesh-coloured. Length 23* inches; wing 17; tail 7; tarsus 2! ; 

 middle toe with its claw 23. 



The Herring Gull betakes itself, in large colonies at the middle of April, to 

 its breeding quarters, and having already assumed its nuptial dress (just described) 

 it mates and sets about nest building with much fuss and noise. 



The nest of the Herring Gull often found in the same colony with those of the 

 Lesser and Great Black-backed Gulls is built, in some localities, mainly on ledges 

 of perpendicular and almost inaccessible cliffs, and rarely on the flat table-lands ; 

 in others, as in Uist, where " the islet being uneven and covered with Luzula 

 sylvatica, the nests were more diversified than is usually found in flat, grassy 

 islands : nests were perched here and there on ups and downs, and some were 

 composed of heather, some of bracken, and others of Luzula." A tree is not an 

 unknown site for this bird to choose for a nursery. If there be turf on the top 

 of large stacks of inaccesible rocks, they will probably prefer that to the ledges of 

 the cliffs, and viewed from a distance, as they sit on their nests, "they look like 

 large flowers among the grass" (Grey). 



The nest is often very large though some individuals make only a slightly 

 lined hollow serve their purpose built of grass, occasionally sticks, or any vegetable 

 material which they can find conveniently in their chosen locality. 



The Herring Gull lays from two to three eggs in length from 2\ to 3 

 inches, by if to 2 inches in diameter very variable in markings and in coloration. 

 Mr. Dresser says that they vary from a moderately light stone to a dark brown, 

 of a somewhat yellowish, hue ; but the average egg is of a moderately dark stone 

 colour. They are blotched with very dark brown, the blotches being medium 

 sized, rarely large, and as a rule uniformly distributed over the surface of the egg ; 

 mingled with the blotches are a few spots. Occasionally they are suffused and 

 blotched with salmon-pink, or reddish-buff. Mr. Henry J. Pearson, whose 

 visits to the northern shores of Europe for the purpose of investigating 

 the breeding haunts and habits of these birds, writes in a letter to the 

 "Ibis" for October, 1896: "It has been a doubtful point for some time among 

 British ornithologists, which of the Gull-tribe lays the beautiful eggs suffused with 



salmon-pink, or reddish-buff, now to be seen in many of our collections 



During a short visit this year to some of the islands on the north of Norway, I 



