348 
LAIIID.E. 
the Great Black-backed Gull and the seal, must be the per- 
tinacity with which it used to be asserted by the fishermen of 
that wild and comparatively little-visited west coast, in the 
course of some deeply interesting expeditions made in their 
company now twenty years ago. They would also tell many 
a story, very much more than half believed in, of relations 
between the seals and the fairies. — Ed.] 
I think this Gull, like most of the genus, never lays more 
than three eggs for one sitting, though it will lay a second time 
if the nest have been robbed of the first batch. In such cases 
I have known the second eggs to be small in size and some- 
what attenuated in form, but it is at no time unusual to find 
the egg come decidedly short of the standard measurement, 
which may be called three inches and four lines by two inches 
and one line for the longer varieties. It is often no larger 
than that of the Herring Gull. The ground colour is most 
frequently a light stone colour ; sometimes, but not often, it is 
olive brown. The nest is generally a large mass of dead plants 
and seaweed placed upon a grassy ledge of rock. 
In the winter-time it would appear to be always the case 
that the head is streaked with grey, both in this species and 
in L. f uscus. The spring moult is completed by the end of 
March, when the biU and eyelids become much more brilliantly 
coloured than they were during the winter. 
As a rule, the Great Black-backed Gull keeps apart from 
other birds, unless when attracted by unusual abundance of 
food, or by carrion in hard weather, and is always so wary 
that it is not often shot, except, unhappily, near its breeding 
haunts. 
THE GLAUCOUS GULL. 
Larus glaums. 
ICELAND SCORIE. 
EuUy equalling the last species in size, and indeed some- 
what exceeding it, this Gull presents considerable differences 
from the Greater Black-blacked in general habit. It never 
