GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. 633 



coast, but no considerable colonies such as those of Scotland 

 are known. 



In the Faeroes, Major Feilden observed the Great Black- 

 backed Gull breeding in isolated pairs ; and in Iceland it is 

 generally distributed, especially in the south-west ; nesting 

 on the coast and also on the fresh-water lakes. It breeds in 

 Norway and Sweden in considerable numbers, as well as on 

 the shores of the North Sea ; and, sparingly, near Archangel, 

 ranging as far east as the Petchora ; but, with the exception 

 of the north-west of France, no other localities are known 

 to be resorted to for incubation on the Continent of Europe, 

 although the species is of general distribution along the 

 coasts ; and it also occurs 011 the inland waters down to 

 Sarepta on the Volga. In the Mediterranean immature 

 birds have been obtained as far east as Greece, but adults 

 are very rare in any portion of that land-locked sea. West- 

 ward, it ranges to the Canaries, which appear to be its 

 southern limit. On the other side of the Atlantic it is 

 found breeding generally throughout Danish Greenland up 

 to 68 N. lat. ; and it has been observed in Baffin Bay. 

 Southward, it nests in Labrador, and in the eastern extremity 

 of Maine ; it occurs on the great lakes ; ranges to Florida 

 in winter ; and has been obtained in the month of December 

 in the Bermudas (Zool. 1877, p. 489). On the PaciEc side 

 it has recently been procured on two occasions when 

 numerous examples were observed on the Alaskan shore of 

 Bering Strait ; and it is perhaps by this route that it reaches 

 Japan, where several adult specimens have been obtained by 

 Captain Blakiston. In the southern hemisphere our species 

 is represented by Larus dominicanus, a bird with a very 

 stout bill, brownish-black mantle, and olivaceous legs and 

 feet : somewhat smaller than, but quite as voracious as its 

 northern relative. The Dominican Gull ranges from New 

 Zealand, by Kerguelen and the other desolate islands of the 

 Southern Ocean, to South Africa, the Falklands, and both 

 sides of South America. 



The nest of the Great Black-backed Gull is generally 

 large in size, deeply hollowed, and formed of dry grass, 



VOL. in. 4 M 



