377 



THE GEEAT BLACK-BACKED GULL.^ 



Lams mar'inus, Linn. 

 Is found around the coast throughout the year. 



A FEW only of this species appears to breed upon the coast of Ire- 

 land. Mr. J. V. Stewart, when living not very far distant from 

 Horn Head, has known it to build on inaccessible places there, 

 and once saw its nest on an insulated rock. More of the greater 

 than of the lesser black -backed gull were said, by the gamekeeper, 

 in 1832, to build there.f On the 9th of July, 1834, we saw 

 several of the adult L. marinus about the lofty cliffs of Arran- 

 more, off Galway Bay, and had no doubt of their breeding there. 

 On the Kerry coast, a few nidify on the Magharee Islands, the 

 cliffs about Dingle, and the small Skelhg rock. J At Lambay Is- 

 land, off the Dublin coast, three pair had nests in ]849.§ At 

 various other localities a few pair must build ; but a very small 

 proportion of those seen in autumn and winter upon our coasts 

 can be bred in the island. 11 Without any reference to nidifica- 



* The only provincial name mentioned by Montagu is Cobb, which he says' is ap- 

 plied to the bird by the fishermen on the coast of Wales. This name is also used at 

 Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, &c. Carrion gull and great saddle-back gull are names 

 also in use. It is called in Sussex " Parson Gull, from a supposed resemblance in the 

 arrangemeut of its black and white plumage to the hood and surplice of a clergjonan." 

 — Knox. 



t " During a walk round all the cliffs of the Hora, ou the 1st of August, 1850, 

 the lesser black-backed gull was not seen, but several of the greater rose up from the 

 abyss below, and soared above our heads." — Mr. Robert Taylor, of Belfast. 



+ Mr. R. Chute. § Mr. R. J. Montgomery. 



II The breeding-places in Great Britain and the adjacent islands which I have seen 

 named may be here brought together. They are " Souliskerry, a small flat islet 

 about thirty miles west of tlie Orkneys " (Bullock) — in a few of the islands of Orkney 

 and Shetland it breeds in abundance (Hewitson) — at the Bass Rock, Frith of Forth, 

 a few pairs breed (Selby and Jardine) — on the South Stack, off Holyhead, two pairs 

 breed (Stanley, ' Fani. Hist. Birds,' vol. ii. p. 244) — " Steep Holmes and Lundy 

 Islands in the British Channel " (Montagu, as informed by fishermen) — about the 

 estuary of the Thames, in Kent and Essex, it is a " marsh breeder " (Yarrell) — in 

 islands on Loch Laighal, Sutherland (St. John, vol. i. p. 41). 



The gamekeeper at Islay, in 1849, considered that both the greater and lesser 

 black-backed gulls breed annually at a rocky islet about half a mile to the north-east 

 of Kinrevock — the great breeding-haunt of the common gull. 



