British Gulls 105 
formation of a skein of geese. They breed in the north of Scotland on the grass by 
the sides of lochs. Their plumage in summer is pure white, excepting for the black- 
tipped wings and the blue-grey of the back. I saw many common gulls associating 
with the kittiwakes on the Blackwater River when fishing in Iveland this year. 
The Kittiwake (LZ. tridactyla), which we will take next, seems to be a favourite 
with everybody. As far as Britain is concerned this little gull is found everywhere, 
and is one of the most companionable of birds on the high seas. The kittiwakes 
come with you, flymg round the steamer, and with the greatest ease keeping up with 
the vessel’s speed. As may be seen from the coloured plate, they are cliff-breeding 
gulls. They nest colonially, often in immense numbers together. There are large 
colonies of them in Ireland and on Lundy Island. In the Farne Islands they nest in 
the entrance to caves and in the passages between the rocks, sometimes so low down 
that you can put your hand into a nest. The most immense colonies of kittiwakes 
I have ever myself seen are in Spitsbergen, and also near the North Cape of Norway. 
The effect of firmg a shot under these gulleries is surprising. The kittiwakes leave 
their nests in mynads, a dense cloud of waving wings and screaming throats. 
The Great Black-backed Gull (LZ. marinus), familiar to us all in our own seas, is 
certainly one of the grandest birds that fly. Almost as large as the glaucous gull, and 
rapacious to a degree, it is a terrible foe to any sickly or wounded creature it may come 
across. In the Hebrides, where it nests, 1 have seen this bird quarterimg the high moors 
with great regularity, apparently looking for wounded grouse or hares. The legs of 
this bird are pmk in colour, in contradistinction to those of the Lesser Black-backed 
(L. fuscws), which are coloured yellow. It measures over three feet across the wings. 
The last of the gulls to which we shall refer is the Herring Gull (ZL. argentatus). 
It is found all about our seas, and nests on cliffs and stacks of rocks all round the coast. 
It goes inland, too, and hunts for earthworms, and picks up the corn when freshly sown. 
With us it has flesh-coloured legs, but in arctic Russia, and eastwards thence, its legs are 
yellow and its back a dark slate-black, and there the monks of the White Sea Islands 
make of it a sacred bird. The Archimandrite allowed me as a great favour to brine 
back one alive to England some years ago, and this bird lived in a Northumberland 
garden for several years, and for all I know to the contrary may be living there now. 
GANNETS. 
