244 HERRING GULL 
LARUS ARGENTATUS, J. ¥. Gmelin. 
HERRING GULL. 
Manx, *Foi/lan (M.S. D. and Cr., pronounced ‘ Félyan’). (Cf. Se. 
Gaelic, Faotlean, Faotleag; Irish, Faoilleann, Faoileog; Welsh, 
Gwylan; Breton, Gwelan, Goulen.) *Gubb (pronounced 
‘Gube’), or Gubbon (Cr.)=the young mottled Gull. 
The Herring Gull is perhaps the dominant bird of Man. 
Not only may it be seen at all seasons on every part of the 
coast, but it may be met with over the whole isle in the 
cultivated fields, and even flying across the central wastes, 
where, however, it seldom seems to alight. It swarms in 
the bays and harbours, even in the nesting season, though 
then a large proportion of the birds there found is immature. 
It has favourite resting places inland, as on the gravelly 
edges of the Neb at the Congarey, and on Castletown 
Claddagh along the Silverburn, where the ground is often 
strewn at moulting time with the feathers. In Douglas 
Harbour it is a tame and amusing bird, thronging the piers 
and quays to pick up fishermen’s offal, and hanging round 
the great steamers, as they arrive and depart. Legal pro- 
tection,’ as I am informed by old residents, has greatly 
increased its abundance within the memory of man. The 
vast multitudes to be seen, after the breeding season, in 
favoured places, as sometimes at Cass ny Hawin, and on 
the sands of the Bay of the Carrick at Strandhall or Mount 
Gawne, form a striking spectacle, shore and rocks being as 
if whitened by a sudden snowfall. 
From Perwick round to Peel, the whole south-western 
and western coast of the isle may be looked upon as one 
great gullery of this species; on the east its breeding places 
are more scattered. It nests nowhere inland, and few if 
1 See the ‘Sea-Gull Preservation Act, 1867,’ at end of volume. 
i 
