GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL 253 
appearing principally in the winter months. The bays of 
Douglas and Peel are frequently visited, and Mr. Kermode 
notes them also in Ramsey Bay in the early part of the 
year, the Black-back usually to a certain extent keeping 
company with Herring Gulls, but often flying or resting on 
the water at a little distance from the flock. 
Its breeding in Man has often been suggested. Mr. 
Kermode says that two isolated rocks, north and south of 
Peel, have been pointed out to him as occasional nesting 
places, and persons in that town believe that it breeds in 
that neighbourhood, but eggs shown to me seem to belong 
to L. argentatus or L. fuscus, and the Black-backs which I 
have seen on that coast are of the latter species. Never- 
theless the island appears to offer many suitable localities, 
and it would be premature positively to deny its residence. 
On 15th April 1898 I saw a pair of mature birds on the 
Santon coast, but they certainly were not breeding there. 
On 1st May, in the same year, I observed another at the 
salt-pools on Langness, and on 10th June 1900 a mature 
specimen on the beach at the Point of Ayre, with a number 
of immature birds, likely of the same species. It is to be 
remembered that there are nesting places in Wigtownshire 
almost within sight. 
This species breeds, or formerly bred, on Lambay, and 
has stations in Donegal. It nests sparingly on the coast 
of Galloway, and at least at one station there on an inland 
lake. It formerly bred also at several places in north- 
western England, where it is now as a breeding species 
entirely or almost extinct, its stations in England generally 
being few. There are a few nesting stations on the coasts 
of Carnarvonshire and Anglesea. As a winter visitant 
it is well distributed round the Irish Sea. It breeds on 
all the outer Scottish groups. 
