GULLS AND TERNS. 33 



secluded sea-lochs. These colonies of Common 

 Gulls vary a good deal in size ; and in some districts, 

 perhaps where suitable sites are scarce, the bird 

 breeds in scattered pairs only. The eggs are laid 

 during the last half of May and the first half of 

 June ; only one brood is reared in the season, but 

 if the first eggs are taken they are generally replaced. 

 The nest of this Gull varies much in size ; some 

 structures are mere hollows lined with a tuft or two 

 of grass ; others are more elaborate, composed of 

 heather stems, pieces of turf, sea-weed, and stalks 

 of marine plants, lined with finer grass, often 

 gathered green. They are built indiscriminately 

 amongst the long herbage, in hollows and crevices 

 of rocks, or on ledges of the bare cliffs. In Norway 

 the eggs of this Gull have been taken from the 

 deserted nest of a Hooded Crow, in a pine tree, 

 but no instances of a similar character have occurred, 

 so far as is known, in our islands. The Common 

 Gull usually lays three eggs, but instances of four 

 are not rare. They run from olive-brown to bufrish- 

 brown in ground colour, spotted and often streaked 

 with darker brown and brownish-gray. The eggs 

 of this Gull are extremely good eating. One 

 often wonders why they are not gathered for 

 the table, just as much as those of the Lapwing. 



KITTIWAKE. 



This charming Gull, the Larus tridactylus of 

 scientists, so named from its entirely absent or 



c 



