GULL. NATATORES. LARUS. 49] 
other measures scarcely more than fourteen. The tarsi and 
the naked part of the tibiz are also longer, and the bill, 
which is deeper and more compressed, has the angle of the 
lower mandible more conspicuously prominent, in which 
points it shews a closer affinity to the larger species of Gulls. 
It is very generally distributed throughout the kingdom, 
and is perhaps more numerous than the Black-headed Gull, 
though the supposition may in part arise from its habit of 
frequenting the interior of the country almost through the 
whole year in search of worms, the larvee of coleopterous in- 
sects, and other similar food, by which it is brought oftener 
under observation, and in districts but seldom visited by the 
other species. Besides this mode of subsistence, it preys 
(when residing upon the coast) upon fish, crustaceze, and 
molluscous shell-fish ; and, to prove its omnivorous appetite, 
it will (when in a confined state, which it bears without im- 
patience) eat bread, and Monracu mentions that one which 
he kept for some years, in defect of fish or worms, would 
pick up dry grain. It breeds upon the coast on rocks over- 
hanging the sea, and sometimes on islands, or on the shores 
of lakes, as I have found, in two or three instances, in the 
Western Highlands of Scotland. At St Abb’s Head, a bold 
and rocky headland of Berwickshire, these birds are very nu- 
merous during the breeding-season, and occupy the whole 
face of the cliff. This is at no great distance from the Fern 
Islands, yet they are never known to haunt that locality, the 
resort of their congener the Lesser Black-backed Gull, and 
of several species of 'Terns.—The nest is formed of sea-weed, 
dry sea-grass, &c., and the eggs, two or sometimes three in 
number, are of a pale oil-green or a yellowish-white colour, 
blotched irregularly with blackish-brown and grey. This 
species requires two years to attain maturity, the plumage of 
the first year resembling that of some of the larger Gulls, 
viz. clove-brown, having the feathers edged with yellowish or 
greyish-white, and the tail terminated by a broad black bar. 
This livery at each moult gradually gives place to the pure 
Food 
Nest, &e 
