GULLS. 



515 



Siberia, and various parts of America, the herring -gull is replaced by several 

 very closely allied forms, mainly distinguished by the darker or lighter hue of the 

 mantle, the pattern of the quill-feathers, and the colour of the legs and of the ring 

 round the eye. These gulls are in the habit of following the shoals of the fish 

 from which they take their name, and may often be seen hovering above the 

 fry, preparatory to taking a plunge among them in the water. Their chief food 

 consists, however, of various marine animals thrown up by the tide ; although during 

 the spring, and after rough weather, 

 they frequently wander far inland. 

 Somewhat superior in size to the 

 common gull (its length being 

 about 21 inches), the lesser black- 

 backed gull iL. fuscus) in the adult 

 summer - plumage has the head 

 white, the primaries blackish with 

 white tips, the back blackish, and 

 the legs bright yellow. This species 

 is resident in Britain, and ranges 

 eastwards to the Caspian, while 

 southwards it extends into Africa, 

 and westwards to the Canaries. 

 Of the great black -backed gull 

 (Z. irmriniis), which is larger than 

 all the preceding, a well-known 

 observer, who writes under the 

 nom de plume of "A Son of the 

 Marshes," says that these birds 

 " are not particular as to the nature 

 of their food, so long as there is 

 enough of it ; a rat or a bird, a 

 fish or a snail, or bread and milk, 

 will suit almost equally well. 

 Tradition said that in the early 



days of our oldest inhabitants the great black-backed gull bred on some of the wild 

 flats oj: the Kentish coast, and in a portion of the lonely salt marshes of Essex." 

 In attacking young lambs, these gulls invariably commence by pecking out the 

 eyes of their victims ; and as many as nine of these marauders have been captured 

 during a single evening by setting a number of traps round a dead lamb. In 

 length this gull measures upwards of 28 inches ; and in the adult breeding-plumage 

 the head is white, the back blackish, and the legs flesh-colour ; the number of 

 flight-feathers being thirty-four. Essentially an oceanic species, the greater 

 black-backed gull is mainly an inhabitant of both sides of the North Atlantic, 

 although it has been procured on the Pacific side of North America, and in winter 

 it ranges as far south as the Canaries. In the Southern Hemisphere it is replaced 

 by the southern black-backed gull (L. doTninicanus), characterised by its stout 

 beak, brownish black mantle, and olive-coloured legs. Largest of all the British 



LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. 



