GULLS’ !°'" 57 
legs. Back pearl-grey, also the wings except for its white 
tips, and the black on the primaries, Rest of plumage 
whine: Bill yellow with red at the angle. After the autumn 
moult the head and neck are streaked with ash-grey. The 
young are mottled brown ; remain immature 4-5 years, with a 
gradual transformation to the adult grey and white plumage. 
Nest. Place: varied, usually cliff ledges, vegetation-covered 
tops of islands, shingle beds and moorland. Material: grass, 
heather, and other accessible material. Species nests usually 
in colonies. 
Eiggs. Usually 2-3. Shades of buff, olive-brown, or green, 
rarely whitish or blue, more or less spotted, blotched and 
streaked with brown and underlying purples. Av. size, 
2‘Tx19in. Laying begins April-May. One brood normally. 
112. Lesser blackbacked-gull [Larus fuscus fuscus Linnseus 
Resident, found breeding mostly in W. England and Scotlan 
Bird. Length 22 in. At once distinguished from the 
preceding, which it nearly equals in size, 
by the dark slate-grey on the back and 
wings and its yellow legs, White tips to 
the scapulars and wing quills, with white 
“mirrors” or terminal patches on the one Mui, 
j i WHY) 
or two outermost primaries. Rest of the “sei 
plumage white, but in winter the head WM 
and neck are streaked with ash-brown, 
Beak yellow with red at the angle. The 
young are mottled brown, but, as might ¢ 
be expected, darker than those of the Fig. 70. 
herring-gull, the back growing still darker 
as maturity approaches in the fourth or fifth year. 
Nest. Place: usually on the vegetation-covered tops of 
islands, on moors inland, rarely cliff ledges, in which it differs 
from the herring-gull. Material: as herring-gull. Species 
nests usually in colonies. 
Eggs. Usually 2-3. Like the herring-gull’s, both in colora- 
tion and size. Laying begins in May. One brood usual. 
113. Great blackbacked-gull [Larus marinus Linnszeus]. 
Resident, breeding chiefly in Scotland and the west coast of 
Ireland. 
Bird. Length 30in. Resembles the preceding species in its 
black and white plumage, but is at once distinguished from it 
at all ages by its much larger size. It resembles the herring- 
gull in having flesh-coloured legs. 
Nest. Usually on some small islet or top of a stack. 
Material: as the two preceding species. Singly or small 
colonies. 
