COMMON GULL. 
309 
A description of the last might serve for this 
bird, adding, that the length is only twenty-two 
inches (that of the other being from thirty to thirty- 
three), the wings exceeding the tail in length ; in 
winter the head is streaked with greyish brown. 
The young specimen in our possession appears of a 
dull brownish white, from the clouding of that co- 
lour on the plumage; on the head the brown as- 
sumes the form of streaks, and on the tail and 
wings of indistinct broken markings. 
The Common Gull, Larus canus. — Mouette d 
pied llue, Temm. — Common Gtill of British authors 
(Whiter Gull, the young). — This bird, though smaller 
than any of the preceding species, is perfectly typi- 
cal in form, and to a person resident at a distance 
from the coast, will perhaps be that with which 
he is best acquainted ; for in autumn, winter, and 
spring, it roams far inland, feeding on the fallows 
and pastures, and after-floods on the inundated lands; 
always, however, retiring to the coast at night. Its 
breeding stations are frequently on precipitous rocks 
by the sea, where we have seen it generally away 
from the other gulls. It also resorts to the shore 
of fresh- water lakes, and to their islands, breeding 
there on the ground, though in one instance we 
found it using the walls of a ruin, on which several 
nests were placed. The Common Gull is very gene- 
rally distributed over our islands, reaching Orkney 
and Shetland. On the European shores it is also 
