160 
liARID.E. 
Mr. Selby, who says that “ the breeding stations are on 
the Steep-holmes and Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel, 
Sauliskerry in the Orkneys, and the Bass Island in the 
Frith of Forth, and one or two others upon the Scottish 
coast.” The nature of these places affords tolerable shelter 
from intrusion, being either isolated rocks, on the upper¬ 
most shelf of which the nest is placed, or some grassy 
island that is unfrequented. 
The nest is of considerable dimensions and composed 
of sea-weeds, herbage, and sticks, and mixed up with earth. 
Although this bird makes its nest close to that of other 
gulls, it does not seem to be of a sociable nature among 
its own species, few being found breeding together in the 
same locality. 
The eggs of the Black-backed Gull are very good to 
eat, for which purpose they are greedily sought for. 
The food of this bird consists in fish, which it takes 
like other gulls, or steals from the fisherman’s weirs at 
low water, besides which it robs other birds of their prey, 
and, in many instances, feeds on the birds themselves and 
their eggs. 
The present species is strong on the wing, but not swift; 
very wary, and therefore difficult to approach within gun¬ 
shot ; it is not only very powerful, but, where it chooses 
to take up its quarters, chases away every bird from its 
close vicinity; and if it has been winged, defends itself 
most courageously. 
The entire length of the Great Black-backed Gull is 
about thirty inches. The wing, from the carpus to the 
tijJ, twenty inches ; the beak three inches and a half. 
The plumage of the adult in summer has the head, neck, 
breast, and all the under parts, pure white ; the back and 
wing-coverts bluish-black; the tips of the scapulars, second- 
