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on the uppermost shelf of isolated rocks or upon 

 some unfrequented grassy island : it is of consider- 

 able dimensions, made of sea-weed, herbage and 

 sticks, mixed up with earth.* 



The Great Blackbacked Gull is a very ravenous 

 bird, feeding on nearly anything that comes in its 

 way, perhaps carrion for choice, and human flesh by 

 no means objected to, for Dr. Saxby, in the ' Zoolo- 

 gist' for 1865 (p. 9480), says that a Shetlander, 

 having climbed to the nest of a bird of this species 

 in order to take the young, found a man's finger, 

 which had been brought to them for food. Ducks, 

 when wounded (and perhaps even when not wounded), 

 are occasionally attacked on the water and killed: 

 eggs also seem to be fully appreciated. 



In plumage this bird is so like the Lesser Black- 

 backed Gull in all its stages that it is scarcely worth 

 while to describe it : it may always be readily dis- 

 tinguished from that bird by its great superiority in 

 size, its whole length being as much as thirty inches, 

 while the Lesser Blackback is only twenty-three 

 inches in length, and the better-known Herring Gull 

 varies from twenty-two to twenty-four inches. The 

 bill and legs also differ from those of the Lesser 

 Blackback, the bill being pale yellow, the angle on 

 the lower mandible orange ; the legs and feet flesh- 

 colour. 



* Meyer's ' British Birds,' vol. vii., p. 159. 



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