By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 



175 



its abundance, it is, though occasionally met with on our Downs in 

 summer, by no means a frequent inland visitor: I have, however, 

 one instance recorded by Mr. Elgar Sloper of a Kittiwake having 

 been picked up dead on the snow in the neighbourhood of Devizes, 

 in November, 1847. It seems to be more thoroughly marine in its 

 habits than others of its congeners, and derives almost all its food 

 from the surface of the sea or the sea-shore. 



" Common Gull." (Larus canus.) I doubt whether this species, 

 numerous though it is, deserves its trivial English name so much 

 as L. ridibundus : but perhaps in Wiltshire it may fairly be 

 entitled our " Common Gull." In the southern parts of the 

 county it is very frequently met with, and I often see it in North 

 Wilts passing overhead. It is also an indefatigable attendant of 

 the ploughshare, and the late Mr. Marsh used to say that in South 

 Wilts it obtained the soubriquet of " barley sower." The Eev. 

 W. C. Lukis kept one alive for some time that was captured at 

 Great Bedvvyn in 1854, and was present when another was 

 secured in the parish of Burbage, in March, 1857, during a snow 

 storm, by which, and the furious gusts of wind which prevailed on 

 that day, it seemed quite overcome and exhausted. Perhaps too 

 the same violent gales had driven it from the coast, and it may 

 have been faint from hunger. 



" Lesser Black-backed Gull." (Larus fuscus.) Though common 

 enough on the coast and within a few miles of the sea, this species 

 rarely ventures far from salt water : and I have but one instance 

 of its appearance in Wilts. That individual was shot in the 

 middle of Salisbury Plain, near Tilshead, as I am informed by Mr. 

 Elgar Sloper. 



" Herring Gull." (Larus argentatus.) I am informed by Mr. 

 Stratton of Gore Cross Farm in the parish of Market Lavington, 

 that he has killed this bird on his own land on the downs ; and 

 though this is the only positive evidence I have of its appearance 

 in Wiltshire, 1 have little doubt that a species so common on our 

 southern coasts, and of such powerful wing, must frequently visit 

 us. It is extremely abundant in the Isle of Wight. 



" Common Skua." (Lestris caiaractes.) The robber Gulls, of 



