PLATE I 

 LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. Larus fuscus 



June 4//r, 1895. The nest depicted in this Plate was photographed on the 

 Outer Wide -opens, Fame Islands, among the scurvy grass which entirely 

 covers the greater part of the Island, and was in full flower at the time of 

 our visit. The nests, of which there were hundreds, were simply bare spots 

 on which the scurvy grass had either been picked or trampled down, the eggs 

 being laid in the depression thus formed. 



The birds were very bold, and alighted within twelve or fourteen yards 

 of us, incessantly uttering their alarm notes, and frequently fighting fiercely 

 with their neighbours. They are inveterate robbers, and we saw them actually 

 carry off the eggs of their own species when the owner's back was turned. 

 They also destroyed hundreds of the eggs of other species, but the Common 

 and Arctic Terns bravely mobbed them and generally drove them successfully 

 from their colonies. 



Although we examined many hundreds of eggs on the Fames, we were 

 unable to come across the rare and beautiful red variety of the Lesser Black- 

 backed Gull's egg. There was one very compact colony on Staples Island : 

 we counted a hundred and seventy-four nests in one piece of ground covered 

 with masses of sea-campion and riddled with Puffin burrows, into which one 

 frequently sank up to the knees, so soft was the undermined soil. The Gulls 

 and Puffins were on the most amicable terms, the latter, no doubt, knowing 

 that the Gulls could not get at their eggs. 



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