LARID^E. 



The eggs are of a dark olive-brown, spotted with 

 darker brown and black: they are a little smaller 

 than those of the Herring Gull. 



LESSER BLACKBACKED GULL, Larus fuscus. Al- 

 though we are not far from Lundy Island, one of its 

 breeding stations, this bird is by no means numerous 

 on our coast : occasional specimens, however, both of 

 old and young birds, may be seen there. It does not 

 appear to me to be anywhere so common as the Her- 

 ring Gull, with which it occasionally mixes, both at 

 the breeding stations and when in search of food. 

 At none of the large breeding stations which I have 

 been able to visit, such as Lundy Island and the 

 Channel Islands, especially Sark and Alderney, have 

 I ever seen the present species in anything like the 

 numbers of the Herring Gulls ; I should say about 

 one pair to fifty of the " Herringers." The Lesser 

 Blackbacked Gulls appeared to place their nests 

 much in the same situation as the Herring Gulls 

 among the crags on the cliffs; but Mr. Walker, in the 

 ' Zoologist' for 1868 (S. S., p. 1371), says the Lesser 

 Blackbacked Gulls breed on the dome of Ailsa, 

 amongst the broken fern and campion leaves. The 

 nests are difficult to find ; they are generally made at 

 the foot of a rock or stone in a slight depression in 

 the ground, and lined with leaves and dry grass. 



This Gull is easily kept in confinement, and 

 may be fed on almost anything. Dr. Saxby, in 

 the ' Zoologist' for 1865 (p. 9402) says of one thus 



3 F 2 



