220 THE BIRDS OF OUR RAMBLES. 



materials of which it is composed vary a good 

 deal in quantity and description, according to 

 the district. Thus many nests are made of 

 leaves and stalks of sea campion, lined with 

 grass ; others are almost entirely constructed of 

 turf and grass ; others, yet again, are made ex- 

 ternally of heather branches, bits of seaweed, and 

 lined with grass. All, however, are somewhat 

 poorly made, and in many instances a mere 

 hollow in the turf is the only provision for the 

 eggs. This Gull lays three or four eggs, which 

 vary in colour almost as much as those of the 

 Guillemot. The ground colours are pale green, 

 bluish white, browns of various shades, buff, and 

 gray, and the spots and blotches vary from dark 

 liver-brown to pale olive-brown and gray. It 

 should here be remarked that colonies of both 

 this Gull and the Great Black-backed Gull are 

 sometimes established on islands in lochs at 

 some distance from the open sea. Only one 

 brood is reared in the season, and as soon as 

 the young can fly the usual wandering life is 

 resumed, the immature birds flocking much by 

 themselves. 



Another bird whose habits and the localities 



it frequents during the breeding season are very 



widely similar to the foregoing, is the HERRING GULL 



distributed. / T . T & ' , . r i i i 



(JL. argentatus). Large colonies of this bird are 

 rare. Such may be seen in favoured parts of 

 the high cliffs of the mainland or the grass- 

 clothed islands, but we far more frequently come 

 across a few pairs of birds scattered here and 

 there along the coast. From motives of security 

 the Herring Gull prefers an island for a breeding- 

 place, although it readily adapts itself to circum- 



