403 



" A few Lesser Blackbacks breed with the Herring-Gulls in the Bristol-Channel breeding- 

 stations ; and the same may be said of the Channel Islands. In the very large breeding-stations at 

 Guernsey, Sark, and Alderney the Herring-Gulls are immensely more numerous than the Lesser 

 Blackbacks — I should think, at least fifty pair of the Herring-Gull to one pair of the Black- 

 back." In the north of England and in Scotland it is common ; and Mr. B. Gray writes, that 

 " from Ailsa Craig northwards to the Shiant Isles and the cliffs of Cape Wrath, the Silvery Gull, 

 as this species has been called, has numerous breeding-places. For the most part it prefers 

 nesting on the turf near the summit of its sea-beaten haunts, and is therefore found at times in 

 colonies, not mixing with, but sitting alongside groups of Lesser Blackbacks as well as the Great 

 Blackback, forming a large but harmonious family of Gulls, conspicuous at a great distance 

 when viewed from the sea, and looking like large white flowers among the grass. It is very 

 abundant on all the shores, including those of the outward islands, where I have observed it to 

 be very tame. Those bred at St. Kilda and Haskeir rocks betake themselves in autumn to the 

 western side of the islands of Harris, North Uist, Benbecula, and South Uist, and are easily 

 approached. I have shot very interesting specimens there showing the last remains of the 

 immature plumage sprinkled in brown spots over the back of the birds and the wing-coverts, 

 giving them a marbled appearance, the rest of the plumage being complete. On the eastern 

 shores this bird is nowhere more common in early spring than in Fifeshire. On Leven sands 

 they assemble in companies numbering thirty or forty birds, and show so much tameness that I 

 have at times walked up to a group at rest within twenty-five yards without causing the birds to 

 take wing. On the shores of East Lothian, and the adjoining county of Berwick, Herring-Gulls 

 are also very numerous. A few pairs breed on the Bass rock ; but the principal station for the 

 species in the district is that part of the Berwickshire coast between St. Abb's Head and Fast 

 Castle, where there are numerous pointed stacks of rock standing apart from the headland and 

 affording the Gulls a safe refuge. The nests are placed at various elevations on these isolated 

 rocks, from the topmost peak to within a few feet of high-water mark, so that, should a storm 

 arise during the breeding-season, the nests are occasionally in danger of being swept away." 

 In Ireland it is, Thompson states, common around the coast throughout the year. 



It has been met with in Greenland, but is excessively rare in that country ; and Professor 

 Bernhardt writes that he himself knows of but one instance of its occurrence, an adult bird in 

 winter plumage having been shot at Godthaab about the year 1850, but he was told of two or 

 three more which have been obtained in Greenland ; and it is likewise found in Labrador. It 

 breeds on the Faeroes, where it is said to attain a great age, but has not been recorded from 

 Iceland. In Norway it is, Mr. Collett writes, resident and abundant up to the Russian frontier, 

 along the line of coast, but less frequently found nesting on the shores of the freshwater lakes. 

 In the interior it has been observed on Mjosen and Fiskumvand. Sommerfelt states that on the 

 Varanger Fiord it breeds on the freshwater lakes. In Sweden it is, Nilsson states, " more 

 numerous on the eastern than on the southern coast; on the Carlsoarna it is numerous during 

 the breeding-season, and is found here and there on the island of Gottland." Mr. Meves writes 

 that it is not common on Oland, but he met with it along the Finnish coast, and states that it 

 "probably occurs on the White Sea." I have shot Herring-Gulls similar to our common British 

 species on several parts of the coast of Finland ; but it is difficult to define the range of this 



