75 



length. By this means also the young birds of the two species 

 can be distinguished. 



Range in Great Britain. This species breeds in Scotland, but 

 Mr. Saunders states that he is not aware of any nesting-place 

 in England, or, indeed, south of the Border. In Scotland, 

 however, it breeds not only on the coasts, where such are 

 favourable, but on inland lochs as far north as the Hebrides, 

 the Orkneys, and Shetland Isles. In Ireland, Mr. Ussher 

 says, it breeds in small colonies, and in separate pairs, on 

 islands in lakes (usually near the coast) of Donegal, Mayo, 

 and Galway, but .sometimes at a distance from the sea, as in 

 Lough Mask and Lake Dahybawn in Mayo, an island on the 

 latter containing a colony of some fifty nests. There are some 

 marine breeding-places, as on islands in Blacksod Bay, and a 

 few pairs breed on one of the Blasquet Islands, off Kerry. 



Range outside the British Islands. According to Mr. Saunders, 

 the Common Gull is found in Europe and Northern Asia down 

 to about 53 N. Lat, where it breeds. In winter it is found 

 in the Mediterranean Basin, the Nile Valley, and the Persian 

 Gulf. It also extends from Kamschatka to Japan and China. 

 It is a rare bird in Iceland, and only one instance of its capture 

 in North America has been authenticated, a young bird having 

 once been obtained in Labrador. 



Habits. These resemble those of the other British Gulls 

 described above. It is more or less gregarious, but in the 

 autumn many single birds are to be observed on our coasts 

 and estuaries. Its food consists of fish, but it will also come 

 inland and follow the plough for the sake of worms and grubs, 

 while, like other Gulls, ifc will also eat young birds. In some 

 parts of its range it adopts the deserted nest of a Hooded 

 Crow, or other bird, in a high tree, on the summit or the 

 branches of which it will be seen to perch. 



Nest. A rough structure of grass or seaweed in the open, 

 but sometimes it will be placed on the ledge of a cliff, or on 

 the top of a rock, or even, as remarked above, on a tree. Mr. 

 Robert Read writes to me : " I have always found the nests 

 of the Common Gull on the shores of fresh-water lakes, or on 

 the islands in one of these waters. The birds are particularly 

 fond of nesting on isolated rocks, sometimes on a boulder, 



