250 LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL 
LARUS FUSCUS, Linn. LESSER BLACK- 
BACKED GULL. 
Parson, Parson Gutt. Manx, *Foil/lan Saggyrt= Priest Gull. 
This species seems to have first been recorded as nesting 
in Man by Yarrell, on what authority I do not know. 
Mr. Kermode, according to his list of 1888, seems to have 
been unaware of its breeding. In May 1891 Mr. Graves 
found considerable numbers nesting at the Calf on the 
isolated rocks of the Burrow and the Stack, and the writer 
has several times since had opportunities of visiting the 
colonies there. The Burrow is a fine mass of rock about 
one hundred feet high, rent by a lofty chasm almost to the 
summit and standing off the south-east end of the Calf. The 
Stack lies off the west end of the same islet, separated by a 
deep and narrow channel with precipitous sides, but on the 
seaward not very difficult of ascent. It is a double-peaked 
pyramid, and fishermen say that the present species breeds 
on the barer southern summit, and the Herring Gull on 
the greener northern portion, a statement which I think 
is roughly correct. The colony on the Burrow, which has 
a fairly flat top, is also mingled with Herring Gulls. On 
the southern points of the Calf itself also many Lesser 
Black-backs nest among the kindred species, showing how- 
ever a tendency to form groups of their own, and I think 
that they seldom choose the more precipitous situations, 
In other nesting settlements of the Herring Gull on the 
main island, a few of the dark-winged species mingle, while 
from some it appears to be entirely absent. At Pistol I 
have noticed one pair only; the nest of these was, in 1893, 
placed very low down on a flat shelf little above sea-level, 
aud on 10th June contained one singularly dark and 
