THE GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. 761 



eats fish (seen to capture and eat full-sized eel), mollusca (Mya 

 truncata, etc.) ; worms, insects, including diptera (Tipulidw) and 

 larva?, coleoptera, etc. ; also grain (barley, etc.) and fragments of 

 seaweed. 



Distribution. — British Isles. — Summer-resident (end Feb. or early 

 March to end Aug. and often as late as Oct. and first half Nov., a 

 very few stay winter probably in most years). Breeds coasts Isle 

 of Wight, Cornwall, Devon (nested Kent, 1908), inland and coasts 

 of Wales and isles, Lanes., Cumberland, Westmorland, Northumber- 

 land, and Earne Isles ; many places coast, inland and isles of 

 Scotland ; several islands, lakes, and some inland places in Ireland. 

 Non-breeding birds frequent in summer on all coasts, but more 

 widely distributed on coasts in autumn and spring on passage when 

 it also appears inland. 



Distribution. — Abroad. — Breeds Fseroes, Channel Is., and west 

 coast of France. (Breeding on coasts of Marocco, Canaries, and 

 Azores has been suggested but there is apparently no authentic 

 proof.) Winters from British Isles to Marocco, Senegal, Nigeria, 

 Azores, and Canary Is., also western Mediterranean. Once Green- 

 land. (Apparently often confounded in literature with L. fuscus 

 fuscus and in life with L. argentatus atlantis, range therefore some- 

 what uncertain.) Represented in north Europe by L. f. fuscus, in 

 Siberia by L. f. taimyrensis . 



LARUS MARINUS 



456. Larus marinus L.— THE GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. 



Larus marinus Linnseus, Syst. Nat., ed. x, i, p. 136 (1758 — Europe. 



Restricted typical locality : Gotland). 



? partim Larus Waggellus Tunstall, Orn. Brit., p. 3 (1771 — Name for 



Brisson's Goeland varie and Ray's Waggellus. British Isles and other 



countries). 



Larus marinus Linnaeus, Yarrell, in, p. 631 ; Saunders, p. 677. 



Description. — Adult male and female. Winter. — Whole head and 

 neck extending on to upper-mantle white, crown, under eyes, back 

 and sides of neck narrowly and sparsely streaked brown, and 

 feathers of lower -neck when fresh narrowly tipped slate-grey ; 

 mantle, back, scapulars and wing-coverts slate-black, upper-mantle 

 washed grey, lower scapulars dark slate-grey tipped white (when 

 worn upper-parts more brown-black and less slate) ; rump, upper 

 tail-coverts, tail and whole under -parts white but under wing- 

 coverts covering primaries mottled grey ; primaries : 1st (un- 

 developed) slate-grey with outer web white except at tip, 2nd 

 (outer) brown-black, inner web grey at base and narrowly edged 

 whitish, tip (50-80 mm.) white (often more or less mottled grey), 

 3rd same but with grey of inner web extending further (to varying 

 degree) towards tip, base of outer web fringed grey, white tip usually 

 shorter and with subterminal black band varying greatly in width 

 and usually much reduced or absent on outer web, 4th with only 





