XX11 INTRODUCTION. 



That fine bird, the Great Northern Diver (p. 68), known 

 only in England as a winter visitant, occasionally remains 

 throughout the summer in Ireland and the Hebrides ; and 

 although the eggs have not been obtained yet in the 

 British Islands, the bird is believed to have nested on a loch 

 in Assynt, Sutherlandshire (cf. Harvie Brown, Zoologist, 

 1868, pp. 1309, 1424) . With reference to the occasional ap- 

 pearance of the Puffin in winter, and the remarkable differ- 

 ence which exists in the bills of individuals of different ages 

 and at different seasons, the reader may be referred to the 

 ' Zoologist/ 1862, p. 8003, and 1863, p. 8331. To the list of 

 breeding-haunts of the Gannet given at p. 75, may be added 

 one of the Skellig islands, off the coast of Kerry ; and as the 

 nesting-places of the Black-headed Gull (p. 77) are becoming 

 not only fewer in number, but gradually smaller in extent, 

 all records of their former or existing conditions must be of 

 interest. The Gullery at Pilling Moss, Lancashire, is de- 

 scribed in the ' Naturalist/ 1851, p. 194; that at Rollesby is 

 noticed in the same periodical, 1854, p. 253. A third colony 

 on Walney Island is pictured in the ' Zoologist/ 1864, 

 p. 9156; while an account of the well-known Gullery at 

 Scoulton Mere has been recently published by Mr. Stevenson 

 (Trans. Norf. & Norw. Nat. Soc. 1872, pp. 22-30). 



With these fragmentary remarks it was intended to con- 

 clude this Introduction ; but the reader may not unreasonably 

 expect that something should be said in regard to the nomen- 

 clature and arrangement of species which has been adopted 

 in the following pages. On this head a few words will suffice. 

 It must be evident to all who have paid any attention to the 

 subject, that so long as naturalists continue to designate spe- 

 cies at random by any synonyms which may belong to them, 

 so long will confusion reign paramount, to the prejudice of 

 all students in zoology. It is only by adhering strictly to 



