373 LARID^. 



the L.fuscus, and one bird, which was shot, though not quite adult, 

 was beheved to be breeding: — in the same month of 1849, three 

 or four pair were observed. The man who descends the rocks 

 stated that just four pair had nests on each of the preceding 

 twenty years. Although this testimony varies (I know not on 

 whose opinion most to rely), it is of little consequence, as all is to 

 the effect — that but few birds are there. 



The gamekeeper at the Horn (Donegal) assured me in June 

 1832, that both the greater and lesser black-backed gulls breed 

 there on the lofty precipitous rocks, and that the latter ^' makes 

 a nest like a hen, laying three eggs of a brownish-green colour, 

 with black ticks :" the eggs of the two species were said by 

 him to differ only in size; — a remark somewhat corroborative 

 of his accuracy. I myself observed this bird to be very scarce 

 there comparatively with the herring-gull. In June 1834 we met 

 with the L. fuscus on the coast of Connaught ; and I was told 

 by the late Mr. T. F. Neligan in 1837 that he had found its nests 

 and those of the herring-gull so abundant on a low rocky islet 

 off that county that he could scarcely walk without treading on 

 their eggs : the L. fiisciis was more numerous there than the L. 

 argentatus — their eggs were carried away in quantities for food. 

 My informant saw on the islet numbers of pellets composed of 

 the remains of shells which he imagined the gulls had disgorged. 

 On that coast, a black-backed gull [L.fuscus?) breeds atMucka- 

 low rock, where it was the only bird of its genus seen one day 

 in 1850, when about thirty of its nests were observed. At the 

 Magharee Islands, perhaps one lesser black-backed to two her- 

 ring-gulls appeared — about Dingle, there are but a few for large 

 numbers of L. argentatus — a remark applicable to them at the 

 lesser Skellig rock, and on the coast of Kerry generally.^ 



In June 1849, a small colony of eight or ten pair was observed 

 on the largest of the Sovereign Islands, near the harbour of Kin- 

 sale ; several of their nests were found on the grass and on ledges 

 of rock : — they were formed of a little dried grass.f These gulls 



* Mr. R. Chute. t Mr. R. Warreu. 



