66 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



Range outside tlie British Islands. Northern Europe, from the 

 Lower Petchora westward to Iceland, and down to about 

 50 N. (breeding) ; in winter to the Canaries, and along the 

 Mediterranean (rarely) to the Egyptian coast ; also on inland 

 waters. Greenland, and also the east coast and the Great 

 Lakes of North America to Labrador (breeding) ; in winter to 

 Florida, and accidentally in Bermuda (H. Sounders). 



Habits. This is one of the largest and most powerful of all 

 the British Gulls, and is a great robber, for besides its ordinary 

 food of fish, it devours eggs and young birds, and will attack 

 any sickly or wounded bird or even a sheep. It may, indeed, 

 be said to be practically omnivorous, and will even eat carrion. 

 It is less gregarious than the other Gulls, and is seldom seen 

 even in small companies, while in winter it is generally solitary. 

 It is a very wary bird, and I have only managed to capture 

 individuals by baiting a long line at night-time and leaving 

 it on the mud-flats. In this way I caught several at Pagham 

 Harbour years ago, both old and young birds. "The notes," says 

 Seebohm, "are loud and harsh ; almost as harsh and almost as 

 unmusical as those of the Raven. Its alarm note might be repre- 

 sented by the syllable Kyaouk, and its call-notes as ag-ag-ag. In 

 winter these birds often congregate where fishing is going on." 



Nest. Placed on rocks, or on an islet at some distance from 

 the sea. The nest is a carelessly-made structure, a depression 

 in the ground being lined with grass or sea-weed, with an 

 occasional twig or two. 



Eggs. Two or three in number, of large size. Ground- 

 colour clay-brown, inclining to stone-colour, with scattered 

 spots of dark reddish-brown or black, with underlying grey 

 spots and blotches. The dark overlying spots have not much 

 tendency to coalesce, and are, in some instances, very scattered 

 and of a pale ochre-brown colour. A pair in the Seebohm 

 collection in the British Museum are bluish-white, with hardly 

 a spot on them ; they were obtained in South-west Sweden. 

 Axis, 2'75-3 - i5 inches ; diam., 2'i-2'2. 



VII. THE LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. LARUS FUSCUS. 



Larus fuscus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 225 (1766); Macgill. Brit. 

 B. v - P- 538 (i&S 2 ) > Dresser, B. Eur. viii. p. 421, pi. 603 



