' The Common Gull is by no means an easy bird to photograph." 



THE COMMON GULL 



HIS bird does not breed in 

 either England or Wales, 

 so that, during a part of 

 the year at any rate, it 

 enjoys a somewhat mis- 

 leading popular name on 

 the southern side of the 

 Tweed. In Scotland it 

 certainly is " common," for in the 

 Hebrides I have known a ploughman 

 obliged to wear his oilskins whilst at 

 work in order to prevent his clothes 

 being whitewashed by its droppings. 



This species is frequently confused 

 with the Kittiwake Gull, but its identity 

 may always be assured by remembering 

 the following simple facts. The Common 

 Gull has greenish yellow legs and feet, 

 and breeds on the ground on grassy 

 slopes facing the sea, amongst rocks 

 shelving down to the ocean, and on 

 islands in fresh-water lochs, whereas the 

 Kittiwake nests on ledges in precipitous 



maritime cliffs, and has dusky coloured 

 legs and feet. 



When the breeding season is over the 

 Common Gull wanders south, and may 

 be seen in numbers not only on the sea- 

 shore, but inland, where it will follow 

 the plough as assiduously as the Black- 

 headed Gull. It never goes far from 

 land, and is soon driven inshore by bad 

 weather at sea. 



This species builds a somewhat bulky 

 nest of heather, dry seaweed, and dead 

 grass, and on more than one occasion 

 I have had the roof of one of my hiding 

 contrivances stripped by it and the 

 Herring Gull of heather stalks which 

 I had pulled for the purpose of concealing 

 myself from birds flying overhead. It 

 lays three eggs as a rule, although two 

 only may sometimes be found, and, 

 occasionally, as many as four. They are 

 bufTish or dark olive-brown in ground 

 colour, spotted, blotched, and streaked 



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