50 Cornish Cliffs in Spring 



pink are largely utilized on the midmost slopes. 

 There is no sign of any attempt at avoiding atten- 

 tion, either by mimicry or by concealment, and the 

 three eggs which form the usual nestf ul are not very 

 much less conspicuous from above than the sharply 

 outlined form of the sitting-bird in her plumage of 

 pure white and delicate grey. 



The numbers of the breeding pairs are swollen 

 by a considerable proportion of immature birds, 

 with plumage still more or less mottled with ob- 

 scurer grey and brown. Where a herring-gull is 

 seen contentedly brooding, with yellow bill tucked 

 down upon her white neck, among the bluebells 

 and shining ivy of a cliff ledge, she forms a beautiful 

 picture in the life of these wild sea-gardens. The 

 greater and lesser black-backed gulls also breed in 

 the same colonies, but are very much less common. 

 The greater black-back is twice the size of the two 

 other gulls, and is as savage and predatory a bird 

 as the raven or any of the hawks. The lesser 

 black-back is a good deal the more common of the 

 two ; but there are, perhaps, not more than one or 

 two pairs of lesser black-backs in the joint colonies 

 along this shore for every hundred pairs of herring- 

 gulls. It is only of late years that they have made 

 their appearance as regular breeding species on this 

 part of the coast ; and they are still regarded by 

 some of the fishermen as due to the breeding of the 

 greater black-backs with the herring-gulls. Like 

 the crow and the raven, the two dark-backed gulls 

 are difficult to distinguish at a distance, and they 

 will seldom wait to be inspected close at hand ; but 



