324 
LA HI DTE. 
There were nearly as many young birds as eggs, some of them 
apparently ten days old ; all of these, even the youngest, when 
pursued, fled to the lake, which was very rough. In one nest I 
noticed a young bird which had just made its exit from the shell, 
surrounded by four eggs, but for the shelter of which — warmth it 
could not be called, as most of the eggs in the nests felt cool— it 
must have perished, so cold was the day. I was surprised to observe 
many young gulls lying dead, the only cause for which that 
could be assigned was their being killed by old birds, not -their 
parents. Our boatman gave the species the character of being 
very pugnacious, and we ourselves had ocular demonstration to 
that effect. Not less than a thousand of these gulls appeared 
here at one view, and their evolutions were extremely beautiful 
and varied, more especially when the willows rising to the height 
of about fifteen feet, and forming a background, afforded a rich 
contrast to the elegant plumage of the birds as they gracefully 
poised themselves, or winnowed the air immediately above their 
nests ; and again, when they hovered over the water and dipped 
their feet in the rising wave after the manner of the stormy petrel. 
We were highly gratified to learn. from the caretaker in charge 
of Bauds Island — with its two buildings of very opposite 
character, one of the ancient Bound Towers, and a neat modern 
cottage — that its noble proprietor, the late Lord O’Neill, had 
given orders that the gulls and terns breeding there, should not 
in any way be disturbed, the result of which was, that they had 
become gradually more numerous, and were much more so that 
birds be much disturbed), is smaller than tbe preceding (Hewitson, Eggs, &c., 
p. 487). 
A man living on the Magharee Islands, Tralee Bay, states of the eggs of 
the “ larger gulls ” (not, of course, inclusive of L. ridibundus ), that those of the 
first laying are dark and much blotched ; of the second, much lighter in colour; 
and of the third and last, nearly white, with one or two large dark spots (Mr. 11. 
Chute). 
The following note, obtained since the preceding was printed, may be added : — 
October 1850. — Mr. John D. Ferguson, of Dunvegan Cottage, Skye, informs me 
that his attention was called by the lighthouse-keeper at the island of Berneray, 
to the eggs of the common guillemot becoming lighter in colour and smaller in 
size each time for several layings ; a statement which my informant saw fully 
verified. 
