GULL, NATATORES. LARUS. 5il 
Scotland ; where Sir Witt1am J arpineE and myself have ob- 
tained the eggs and young upon one of the islands of Loch 
Awe. In spring, towards the middle of April, when they 
begin to pair, the birds that breed upon the Fern Islands 
assemble every afternoon in large flocks upon the opposite 
mainland, and advance inland for four or five miles, alighting 
occasionally upon the pastures and newly sown corn-fields. 
At this time they are very clamorous, keeping up a conti- 
nual concert, by uniting in their calls peculiar to the season, 
and which, when heard at a distance in a calm evening, have 
a wildness of sound that is far from being disagreeable. This 
Gull subsists on fish, and other marine animal food, and is 
often seen in pastures, or newly ploughed fields near the 
coast, in search of worms, larva, and insects. It readily 
submits to confinement, and may be reared from a tender 
age, as it thrives upon worms, or any kind of offal; and I 
have frequently kept it for the sake of witnessing the changes 
in its progress to maturity, which, as in the other large 
species, occupy three years. Its digestion is rapid, and its 
voracity very great, as the following circumstance will shew: 
An individual, that I kept in a garden, made no difficulty 
of swallowing whole young Plovers of both kinds, when fully 
half grown. In size this species equals the Herring Gull, 
but its bill is shorter and thicker in proportion. The young 
of both (as has already been observed) are so similar as to 
make it very difficult to distinguish them, particularly during 
the first or nestling plumage. 
Prater 95. Adult Bird of the natural size, and im summer 
plumage. 
Bill ochre-yellow ; angle of the lower mandible fine aurora- 
red. Irides gamboge-yellow ; orbits of the eyes vermi- 
lion-red. Legs and feet clear saffron-yellow. Head, 
neck, under plumage, lower part of the back, and tail, 
pure white. Mantle and wing-coverts deep blackish- 
grey. The six greater quills black; the first with a 
Food. 
General 
descrip- 
tion. 
Adult. 
Summer 
plumage. 
