Booth : The Common Gull on the Fame Islands. 237 



of their dark colour, and the pale yellow of the mite, they are 

 also very evident in the recent specimen, and I have no doubt 

 could be well seen in the living mite, which, however, I have 

 not seen as my specimens were taken by Mr. Pickles, a school- 

 master, who transferred them (when caught), to preservative 

 solution immediately. They were found near Kirton-in- 

 Lindsey. The species is something like Koch's figure of 

 megacephala, but he does not mention this central eye. The 

 palpus is similar to that of other species of Bdella. This is 

 the only species of Cyta {Ammonia of Koch), that I have as 

 yet met with. 



■♦»■ 



NESTING OF THE COMMON GULL ON 

 THE FARNE ISLANDS. 



H. B. BOOTH, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. 



Referring to my note on the nesting of Lams canus on the 

 Fame Islands in 1910,* I have pleasure in reporting that this 

 species has again nested there this year. I had heard of the 

 occurrence before my visit to the islands in early July, and had 

 hoped to have seen the young birds ; but, unfortunately, the 

 newly-hatched chicks were destroyed a week before my arrival, 

 by Lesser Black-backed Gulls. This year the nest was on the 

 ' The Fame ' island itself, where the watcher, Robert Darling, 

 lives during his residence on the islands. Darling (who knows 

 the bird well) had the nest of three eggs under observation for 

 some time. Shortly after the young had been hatched, he 

 heard a commotion going on in the direction of the nest, and 

 the plaintive cries of the parent birds. Hurrying to the spot, 

 he found they were being mobbed by several Lesser Black- 

 backed Gulls, and that the young Common Gulls had disap- 

 peared. He presumed the Lesser Black-backs had eaten the 

 chicks, in the same manner in which they take the young 

 Terns. On my return home, I communicated with Mr. H. A. 

 Paynter (the Honorary Secretary of the Fame Islands Asso- 

 ciation), who had also seen the birds at the nest, and from whom 

 I received the following additional corroboration : — ' It was 

 a pity about the Common Gulls. There is not the slightest 

 doubt about it, as I saw the bird, its eggs, and also saw it 

 sitting on its young ones — I was very disappointed, and so was 

 Darling — at their untimely fate.' 



* The Naturalist, 1911, p. 179. 

 1912 Aug. I. 



