130 LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. 



and fairly rapid. In disposition quarrelsome and thieving. It 

 beats about the shore at low tide on the look-out for any nasty 

 mess cast up by the sea, and on finding anything a good deal 

 of squabbling and yelping ensues. It will kill young weakly 

 birds, and eats other birds' eggs with avidity. It also catches 

 surface-swimming fish, and may, at times, be seen far inland 

 searching the ploughed land for worms, &c. 



Food. Fish usually, but in hard times it is practically 

 omnivorous. 



Nest. May. One brood. 



Site. On ledges of sea-cliffs, on masses of isolated tumbled 

 rocks, on the ground under some overhanging rock, or some 

 sea-girt islet. 



Materials. Grass-sods, seaweed, and other marine plants. 



Eggs. Two or three. Olive-brown, spotted and blotched 

 with rich dark umber and greyish brown. Variable. 



LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL (Larus fuscus) . 



Resident. Well distributed, but not so abundant as the last. 

 Its chief breeding stations are Lundy Island, Welsh coast, 

 Walney Island, Isle of Man, Cumberland, Westmoreland, 

 Shetlands, Orkneys, and other Scottish islands, Fame Islands, 

 Cornwall, Devonshire, and Channel Islands. 



Plumage. Back and wings black, but tipped with white on 

 scapulars and secondaries ; the rest pure white. Bill, legs, and 

 feet yellow. Length 21 in. Female, similar. In winter, head 

 and neck streaked with brown. Young : parts white in adult 

 mottled with ashy-brown, and where black in adult mottled 

 with ruddy brown ; in fact, it is like the young Herring Gull. 

 Nestling: covered with greyish buff down on upper parts; head, 

 neck, and back marked with brown ; under parts paler greyish 

 buff. 



Language. A cackling kind of yelp, like the Herring Gull's, 

 but, if anything, scarcely so harsh. 



Habits. Closely resembling the Herring Gull. 



Food. Like Herring Gull. 



Nest. May. One brood. 



Site. Like Herring Gull. 



Materials. Like Herring Gull. 



Eggs. Two or three. Variable, and practically indistin- 

 guishable from the Herring Gull's. They are, however, slightly 

 smaller, and exhibit a tendency towards bluish greer in ground 

 colour rather than olive-brown. 



