316 BRITISH BIRDS. 



LARUS CANUS. 

 COMMON GULL, 



(PLATE 52.) 



Larus gavia cinerea major, Briss. Orn. vi. p. 182 (1760). 



Larus canus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 224 (1766) ; et auctorum plurimorum Omelin, 



Naumann, Schlegel, Dresser, Sa^mders, &c. 

 Larus cinereus, Scop. Ann. I. Hist. Nat. i. p. 80 (1769). 

 Larus hybernus, Tunst. Orn. Brit. p. 3 (1771). 

 Larus procellosus, Bechst. Orn. Taschenb. ii. p. 373 (1803). 

 Larus cyanorhynchus, Meyer, Taschenb. ii. p. 480 (1810). 

 Larus heinei, Homeyer, Naumannia, 1853, p. 129. 

 Glaucus canus (Linn.), Bruch, Journ. Orn. 1853, p. 102. 

 Gavina heinei (Homeyer), I ^.^ ^^ Qfn ^^ ^S, 284. 

 Gavina canus (Ltnn.), \ 



The Common Gull breeds in various parts of Scotland and Ireland, both 

 on the coasts and inland, extending to the Orkneys, the Shetlands, and the 

 Outer Hebrides. To England it is only a winter visitor, though five-and- 

 twenty years ago it bred near Fleetwood, on the coast of Lancashire, 

 where my friend Mr. Holdsworth has taken its eggs. In the extreme north 

 of Scotland it migrates south in winter, and at that season is common on 

 the greater part of the English coasts, frequently wandering far inland in 

 open weather. 



The Common Gull breeds only in the northern portion of the Palsearctic 

 Region, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In Europe it is not known to 

 breed south of the Baltic*; in Scandinavia it breeds as far north as land 

 extends; but in East Russia and West Siberia it is only found south of 

 lat. 68, and in East Siberia it is not known to range north of lat. 64. 

 It passes through the valley of the Amoor, Mongolia, Lake Baikal, and 

 Turkestan on migration, and winters on the coasts of Japan, China, and 

 the Caspian Sea, and has once occurred in the Persian Gulf. The West- 

 European birds are principally resident, though many of them pass down 

 the coast as far as Gibraltar ; but in North-east Europe they are migratory, 

 and winter in the Black Sea and the basin of the Mediterranean. 



Siberian examples of this species are separated as Larus canus niveus, on 



* Degland and Gerbe state that the Common Gull breeds on the rocky coasts of 

 Northern France ; but they have probably confounded it with the Kittiwake. Henke 

 says that it breeds in great numbers on the Khirghiz Steppes, and Radde states that it 

 breeds commonly near Lake Baikal ; but both these writers are probably in error, as 

 Dybowsky says that great numbers pass through the neighbourhood of Baikal to breed 

 further north, though large flocks of immature non-breeding birds remain throughout the 

 summer. 



