332 
THE BIRDS OF HAMPSHIRE. 
264. Larus fuscus. Lesser Black-backed Gull. 
A winter visitor to all our coasts, a few pairs remaining 
to nest. 
Mr. Hart reports that immature birds are to be seen 
the year round, and adults in winter and spring. 
It will be seen from the following notes that a pair 
or two have continued to nest among the herring-gulls 
at Freshwater, until a very recent date, and it is to be 
hoped that the protection now afforded to the cliff birds 
may yet restore this one to the number of our resident 
species. 
Bury says that it was very abundant in the Island 
during the winter months in his time, even more so than 
the herring-gull, but that one or two pairs only remained 
to nest. 
But this remark about its abundance in winter is not 
true at the present day. 
More, writing in i860, considers that it "cannot be 
reckoned among the residents, since it does not breed 
regularly at the Freshwater Cliffs. One or two pairs have 
been known to nest there in 1857 and 1858, but this is said 
to be a very unusual occurrence." 
But Hadfield was able to report nests from time to 
time, for a long period after this. 
Thus in the "Zoologist'' of 1866 he describes two 
young birds taken from the nest, in the spring of the year 
before. In June, 1866, he reports a pair still nesting in the 
Culver Cliffs, and in July, 1867, "one pair breeding this 
year on the Freshwater Cliffs, and one pair on the Culvers." 
Again in January, 1884, he records the nesting of a pair 
at Freshwater during the previous year. 
