Devon. 



ALONG ROCK-BOUND COASTS. 219 



isolated stack of rocks, or on a ledge in the 

 highest cliffs. Usually this nest is slight, some- 

 times nothing but a mere hollow lined with 

 a few bits of dry grass. The eggs are two or 

 three in number, olive-brown, or light brown in 

 ground colour, spotted with various shades of 

 darker brown and gray. The large size, and 

 very dark slate-gray mantle, serve to distinguish 

 this handsome bird from its smaller congener, the 

 LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL (L. fuscus\ Very widely 



,. rr , i i r i i i distributed. 



different are the habits of these two birds, Not known 



. . 1 . r , . to breed 



especially during the season of reproduction, beiow^ 

 The Lesser Black-backed Gull is eminently sou'S? to 



* T^*r/vt- 



gregarious and social, and wherever facilities 

 are afforded great numbers breed in company. 

 Wherever it is possible, this fine bird prefers a 

 rocky island to the mainland, and the uneven 

 surface of the ground in such localities seems 

 always to be selected rather than shelves of the 

 cliffs. In many places, however, the birds have 

 no choice as at St. Kilda and are forced to 

 breed among the highest inaccessible cliffs 

 among the Guillemots and Razorbills. Like its 

 larger ally, the flat grassy top of a rock-stack 

 standing alone in the sea is sometimes selected. 

 The most extensive colony of Lesser Black- 

 backed Gulls that I know of is at the Feme 

 Islands there this Gull is the one predominating 

 species. Its nest may be found almost anywhere 

 on these far-famed islets ; among the luxuriant 

 carpet of sea campion and coarse grass, on the 

 ledges of the low rocks which on all sides stand 

 out from the peaty soil, in the hollows among 

 the Puffin burrows, and wedged tightly in the 

 rock crevices where the Eiders nest. The 



