620 LARTDyE. 



on the sea-shore, and consists of fish, crustaceans, mollusca, 

 radiata, and anything cast up by the tide ; and this Gull 

 has frequently been seen to carry clams and mussels to a 

 considerable altitude, and let them fall upon the rocks in 

 order to break the shells and get at the contents. Like all 

 the large Gulls, this species is a great robber of eggs, and 

 the ledges frequented by Guillemots, Gannets, and other 

 sea-birds, are swept bare on the first opportunity ; nor are 

 the nests of grouse, wild-geese, and ducks exempt from its 

 depredations. 



The Herring Gull has often been known to breed in cap- 

 tivity ; and a hybrid between it and the Lesser Black-backed 

 Gull will be noticed under the latter species. It appears 

 to attain a considerable age, for Mr. S. A. Brenan of Clough- 

 ban, Pomeroy, writing in ' Science Gossip,' 1876 (p. 238), 

 says that Miss Ross, of Limavady, had one then living which 

 was taken from the nest in 1832. 



Our Herring Gull is one of the members of a group which, 

 when taken in a wide sense, may be said to consist of several 

 geographical races or forms, but inasmuch as distinctions 

 between them, however small, can fairly be indicated, it is 

 convenient to consider them as species, and by scientific 

 names. Their specific characteristics are a lighter, or a 

 darker, mantle and pattern of the quill-feathers ; the colour 

 of the legs and feet ; and that of the ring outside the eye. 

 There can be little doubt that the intensity of coloration 

 or the reverse is to some extent dependent upon climatic 

 conditions ; and consequently it is in the northern portions 

 of Europe, in the islands of the Atlantic, and in North 

 America, that we find the present species, as characterized 

 by a pale pearl-grey mantle, flesh-coloured legs and feet, and 

 the ring outside the eye of a light yellow. Its range may be 

 defined as extending from the Baltic and the Varanger Fiord, 

 down the western coasts of Europe, to North Africa, Madeira, 

 and the Canaries in winter ; and to the Azores, where it breeds. 

 To Greenland it is a rare straggler ; but a specimen obtained 

 by Dr. Rae at Repulse Bay, Melville Peninsula, is in the 

 British Museum ; and the range of this species probably 



