GEE AT BLACK-BACKED GULL 



827 



Great Black-backed Gull. 

 Larus marinus. 



Bill yellow; legs and feet flesh-colour; plumage as in the 

 lesser black-backed gull. Length, thirty inches. 



Turner, who wrote on British birds three centuries ago, in 

 describing the great black-backed gull, says that it was called cob ' on 



FIG. 110. GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. natural size. 



fche Kentish and Essex coast. It is curious to find that it is still 

 known by this name in the same localities, where it is now very rare. 

 In colour and appearance it closely resembles the lesser black-back, 

 but exceeds it in size, and is nearly twice as heavy it is, in fact, 

 the largest of the gulls. It is also the rarest species in the British 

 Islands ; for although its breeding-sites are not few in Scotland, 

 while others exist on the coasts of England, Wales, and Ireland, its 

 colonies are very small compared with those of other species, and 

 in many cases the breeding-place is occupied by a single pair. Its 



