372 
LABIDyE. 
the L. fuscus, and one bird, which was shot, though not quite adult, 
was believed to be breeding : — in the same month of 1849, three 
or four pair were observed. The man who descends the rocks 
stated that just four pair had nests on each of the preceding 
twenty years. Although this testimony varies (I know not on 
whose opinion most to rely), it is of little consequence, as all is to 
the effect — that but few birds are there. 
The gamekeeper at the Horn (Donegal) assured me in June 
1832, that both the greater and lesser black-backed gulls breed 
there on the lofty precipitous rocks, and that the latter “ makes 
a nest like a hen, laying three eggs of a brownish-green colour, 
with black ticks the eggs of the two species were said by 
him to differ only in size; — a remark somewhat corroborative 
of his accuracy. I myself observed this bird to be very scarce 
there comparatively with the herring-gull. In June 1834 we met 
with the L. fuscus on the coast of Connaught ; and I was told 
by the late Mr. T. F. Neligan in 1837 that he had found its nests 
and those of the herring-gull so abundant on a low rocky islet 
off that county that he could scarcely walk without treading on 
their eggs : the L . fuscus was more numerous there than the L. 
argentatus — their eggs were carried away in quantities for food. 
My informant saw on the islet numbers of pellets composed of 
the remains of shells which he imagined the gulls had disgorged. 
On that coast, a black-backed gull (I. fuscus ?) breeds atMucka- 
low rock, where it was the only bird of its genus seen one day 
in 1850, when about thirty of its nests were observed. At the 
Magharee Islands, perhaps one lesser black-backed to two her- 
ring-gulls appeared — about Dingle, there are but a few for large 
numbers of L. argentatus — a remark applicable to them at the 
lesser Skellig rock, and on the coast of Kerry generally.* 
In June 1849, a small colony of eight or ten pair was observed 
on the largest of the Sovereign Islands, near the harbour of Kin- 
sale ; several of their nests were found on the grass and on ledges 
of rock : — they were formed of a little dried grass. t These gulls 
* Mr. R. Chute. 
f Mr. R. Warren. 
