292 BRITISH BIRDS* EGGS. 



the name indicates, this is a smaller species than the last, 

 but there is a great similarity between the plumage of the 

 two birds ; in its habits, however, the present is considered 

 less maritime than its congener. The Lesser Black-backed 

 Gull is very generally distributed around the British Islands, 

 and very extensively so beyond them. It builds on islands 

 both of the seacoast and of inland lakes; and precipitous 

 cliffs, as well as marshy moors, are frequented for the pur- 

 pose of incubation. It has been remarked that while in the 

 south of Britain the Great Black-backed Gull is decidedly 

 a marsh -breeder, and in the more northern part often nestles 

 among inaccessible rocks and cliffs, the Lesser Black-backed 

 Gull, which in the south prefers rocks and cliffs, as it ad- 

 vances northward generally builds in lower situations, upon 

 islands or in low-lying marshy places. Sir William Jardine 

 was informed by the boatmen upon Loch Awe that this 

 bird occasionally built in trees, a circumstance which he did 

 not verify, but which nevertheless may not be incredible. 

 The nest of this species is almost entirely composed of grass, 

 deposited in some slight depression or hollow, and loosely 

 put together ; and the eggs, two or three, and perhaps even 

 occasionally four in number, are of different shades of green- 

 ish or brownish colour blotched with grey and brown. They 



