GULL. NATATORES. LARUS. 491 



other measures scarcely more than fourteen. The tarsi and 

 the naked part of the tibia? are also longer, and the bill, 

 which is deeper and more compressed, has the angle of the 

 lower mandible more conspicuously prominent, in which 

 points it shews a closer affinity to the larger species of Gulls. 

 It is very generally distributed throughout the kingdom, 

 and is perhaps more numerous than the Black-headed Gull, 

 though the supposition may in part arise from its habit of 

 frequenting the interior of the country almost through the 

 whole year in search of worms, the larvae of coleopterous in- 

 sects, and other similar food, by which it is brought oftener Food, 

 under observation, and in districts but seldom visited by the 

 other species. Besides this mode of subsistence, it preys 

 (when residing upon the coast) upon fish, crustacese, and 

 molluscous shell-fish ; and, to prove its omnivorous appetite, 

 it will (when in a confined state, which it bears without im- 

 patience) eat bread, and MONTAGU mentions that one which 

 he kept for some years, in defect of fish or worms, would 

 pick up dry grain. It breeds upon the coast on rocks over- 

 hanging the sea, and sometimes on islands, or on the shores 

 of lakes, as I have found, in two or three instances, in the 

 Western Highlands of Scotland. At St Abb's Head, a bold 

 and rocky headland of Berwickshire, these birds are very nu- 

 merous during the breeding-season, and occupy the whole 

 face of the cliff. This is at no great distance from the Fern 

 Islands, yet they are never known to haunt that locality, the 

 resort of their congener the Lesser Black-backed Gull, and 

 of several species of Terns. The nest is formed of sea- weed, Nest, &c. 

 dry sea-grass, &c., and the eggs, two or sometimes three in 

 number, are of a pale oil-green or a yellowish-white colour, 

 blotched irregularly with blackish-brown and grey. This 

 species requires two years to attain maturity, the plumage of 

 the first year resembling that of some of the larger Gulls, 

 viz. clove-brown, having the feathers edged with yellowish or 

 greyish- white, and the tail terminated by a broad black bar. 

 This livery at each moult gradually gives place to the pure 



