The Herring Gull. 8i 



perhaps no island on the coast now contains as many Herring Gulls as 



Rum does." Ailsa Craig, the Bass Rock, St. Abb's Head, and the Buller's of 

 Buchan are other notable places. It is never safe, however, to count on finding 

 the same sized colony at the same place many years in succession, Gulls resembling 

 Terns in being fickle as to their nurseries, and leaving or returning to them for 

 no perceptible reason. 



The breeding range of the Herring Gull extends across the whole of Northern 

 Europe, as far east as the 40th meridian, and along all its coasts down to the 40th 

 parallel of N. latitude. It is found breeding as far north as 78 , along all the 

 indented coast line of the western hemisphere, and inland on the great lakes south 

 to the same parallel as on the European side, but on the Pacific coast it ranges 

 somewhat lower. In winter it migrates to the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and 

 the Caspian, on the eastern side of the Atlantic, and to the 20th parallel on the 

 western. 



Although during autumn and winter this species extends its range southward, 

 large numbers reside throughout the year within its breeding limits, except, 

 perhaps, in its most northern portions. 



Individuals from different parts of its wide range vary very greatly in size ; 

 but the females are, as a rule, of smaller dimensions than the males of their own 

 locality or colony. The plumage of both sexes is alike at their corresponding 

 seasons and ages. In breeding attire fully adult birds have the head, the 

 neck, upper back, sides of head, entire under surface, upper tail-coverts and tail 

 pure white ; the back, scapulars and wing-coverts delicate, rather darkish, lavender- 

 grey ; scapulars and secondaries broadly tipped with white, showing prominently 

 as a bar across the wings ; all the primaries have tips of white, of larger or smaller 

 extent. The markings of the quills are so intricate that we follow Mr. Saunder's 

 authoritative account of them : the first primary which is almost entirely black, except 

 for a narrow grey wedge-shaped spot on the inner web, has a narrow sub-terminal 

 black bar, which in most old birds divides " the white into tip and ' mirror.' " 

 With increasing age of the bird, the " white mirror absorbs the black bar till the 

 latter disappears, leaving the primary pure white from the tip to more than two 

 inches upwards ; whilst from above a grey ' wedge ' along the inner web gradually 

 eats into the black portion, reducing the width of the black along the inner web 

 to only two inches ; the second blackish on both sides of the shaft, with a bar 

 the same as in the first ; a white ' mirror ' — absent in birds not fully mature — and 

 a grey wedge, which sometimes breaks through and joins the mirror; the third 

 is grey at the base, blackish on the lower part of the outer web and on the sub- 

 terminal bar, grey on the inner web, passing into white at the apex of the wedge ; 



Vol. VI O 



