COMMON GULL 251 
handsomely blotched egg, and two others more ordinary. 
At Tring Vuigh there are a few pairs, and on Knocksharry 
cliffs one or two. The nesting habits of LZ. fuscus and 
L. argentatus are very similar; on the Calf we thought 
that nests which had many feathers mixed in their 
structure usually belonged to the former, and while in 
1901, at the end of May, the Herring Gull had frequently 
hatched out, we did not identify any young as belonging to 
the Black-back, which undoubtedly is somewhat later in 
laying. All through the year, in winter as in summer, the 
Lesser Black-back is a scarcer associate of the Herring 
Gull, and all round the island, in the harbours of Douglas 
and Peel, on the shores of Michael and Castletown, one, two, 
or a small party may be seen among a crowd of Herring 
Gulls, whom they also accompany to the inland fields. 
Less common than the Herring Gull in Ireland, this 
species breeds on Lambay and Rathlin, and inland among 
the Antrim mountains. It nests on the coast and some 
lochs in Galloway, and is said to be not very numerous 
in Kirkcudbrightshire, but common in Wigtownshire. It 
breeds also on some of the Lakeland mosses, and is frequent 
on the Lancashire and Cumberland coast-line. It nests on 
Anglesea much less abundantly than the Herring Gull. 
It is a summer resident in the outer isles of Scotland, 
where it appears seldom to be as plentiful as the Herring 
Gull, and to be little known in winter. It is, in Britain, 
somewhat more local than the last species. 
LARUS CANUS, Linn. COMMON GULL. 
The Common Gull appears in small numbers on our 
coast in autumn, winter, and spring, and is very apt to be 
