599 



Though so delicate in appearance this bird quite 

 equals other Gulls in the extent of its appetite and 

 the variability of its food, which consists for the most 

 part of fish and dead and putrid matter.* It is a 

 constant attendant on the flenzing operations of the 

 whale fishers. 



Yarrell describes the adult bird as follows : The 

 bill greenish grey at the base and about the nostrils, 

 the rest yellow ; the whole of the plumage, including 

 the wing and tail-feathers, a pure and delicate white ; 

 legs short and black. The adult in winter, he says, 

 has a few greyish streaks or lines about the head ; 

 and the young birds, like most of the other young 

 Gulls, are more or less mottled with pale brown. 



The eggs are said to be olive-coloured, spotted 

 with brown, t 



COMMON GULL, Larus canus. The Common Gull, 

 although perhaps not quite so common as the Her- 

 ring Gull or the Kittiwake, is nevertheless a nu- 

 merous species on our coast ; but I do not know that 

 it breeds on any part of it, though from its wide 

 range of breeding grounds it might easily find situa- 

 tions to suit it. Mr. Blake-Knox, in his paper on 

 the Common Gull, in the 'Zoologist' for 1867 

 (p. 625), says its favourite breeding places are the 

 shores of lakes or salt marshes, unfrequented islands 

 or rocky cliffs. The nest is placed by the water's 



* Meyer's ' British Birds/ vol. vii., p. 144. f Id. p. 143, 



