28G 
THE HERPJNG GULL. 
Wales. It breeds on Lundy Island, in the British Channel, 
and. has been shot as high up the Severn as AVorcester. It 
has been found in Cornwall and Devonshire, Suffolk and Nor- 
folk, Durham and Northumberland, and indeed in most of 
the maritime English counties. It inhabits North America, 
is included among the birds of Greenland, and has been 
seen as far north as Baffin's Bay; Sweden, Norway, Ger- 
many, Holland, France, and Italy, and the shores of the 
Caspian Sea are its European habitats. 
The Lesser Black-backed Gull, at a distance, can scarcely 
be distinguished from its larger congener, which it re- 
sembles in its habits. It is generally dispersed along the 
British coasts, and is a permanent resident. It is a pecu- 
liarly elegant and graceful bird, measuring about twenty- 
two inches in length. The back and wings are blackish 
grey, tinged with j)urple or dark slate colour; the quills 
tipped with white, which is the colour of the rest of the 
body, only that the head and hind neck have light brown 
streaks ; the bill is light orange, with a vermilion patch 
on the lower mandible ; the margins of the eye-lids are 
also bright red. 
In some districts this bird is of rare occurrence, in 
others plentiful ; and it is more so in the northern than in 
the southern parts of the country, probably because in the 
former it obtains more secure breeding places. The spots 
chosen are unfrequented islands, headlands, and sometimes 
inland lakes ; to these they betake themselves in May, and 
remain there until the yoiuig are able to fly. Their nests, 
composed of withered grass and other herbage, are placed 
in hollows formed in the turf, or in superficial chinks of the 
rocks. 
The Herring Gull is generally about twenty-three inches 
in length ; it has flesh-coloured feet, a yellow bill, and 
margins to the eyelids, with an orange patch on the lower 
mandible ; the back and wings are light bluish gray, slightly 
tinged with purple ; the quills variegated with black and 
white; the head and neck and other parts pure white. 
A truly beautiful bird, with soft, full, close, and elastic 
plumage ; the wings are long, extending an inch and a half 
beyond the short rounded tail. Why this species in par- 
