LARIDJE. 369 



Subfamily LARINjE. 



THE GULLS. 



The Devonshire coast is never without numerous Gulls 

 to lend the charm of bird-life to its beautiful scenery. 

 There are four species resident with us — the Greater and 

 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, the Herring-Gull, and the 

 Kittiwake. The Herring-Gull is to be seen on both the 

 north and south coasts every day in the year, while the 

 Kittiwake, abundant throughout the summer in the 

 northern waters of the county, because of its great nesting 

 station on Lundy Island, is numerous in the sounds and 

 bays of the south only in the autumn and winter, in which, 

 after stormy weather, the Black-backed Gulls also make 

 their appearance. Our native Gulls receive large rein- 

 forcements from other species in the autumn, which pass 

 the winter in their company, and in October such bird 

 stations as Torbay and Plymouth Sound are teeming 

 with Gulls, Skuas, Shearwaters, Divers, Scoters, Wild 

 Duck, and Wigeon. The Common Gull and the Black- 

 headed Gull are very numerous as winter visitors, while a 

 season seldom passes without the southern estuaries being 

 tenanted by some of the fine Polar Gulls, such as the 

 Glaucous, and its smaller relative the Iceland Gull. After 

 severe October gales the rarer Sabine's Gull, a small and 

 beautiful species from the regions of snow and ice, is 

 occasionally seen, wliile the still smaller species, no larger 

 than an ordinary Pigeon, the Little Gull, is then not unfre- 

 quently obtained. Devonshire can also boast of possessing 

 the only British-killed specimen of the Great Black-lieaded 

 Gull ; and the rare Ivory Gull has occurred also but once. 

 Directly the tide goes out and leaves the sands and mud- 

 flats uncovered, the Gulls flock to them in numbers, and 



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