it “ is much more common in the remote northern districts than in the southern counties. There are several 
breeding-stations within a few hours’ journey of Glasgow. Two of these are very dissimilar in their 
character — one being situated near the sutnmit of Ailsa Craig, and the other on the island of Inchmoin, in 
Loch Lomond. In the former locality the nests are on the grassy slopes of the rock, and are mere hollows 
formed In the turf, with a very scanty lining; but in the inland nursery they are formed of materials similar 
to those used by the Lesser Black-backed Gull, and are generally found among coarse grass and bushes of 
heath. Twelve or fourteen pairs annually take up their quarters on Loch Lomond, in the island just named, 
but seem to keep aloof from the other species frequenting the place, repairing in the daytime to the upland 
glens, where they occasionally fall in with dead sheep and other animals, on which they surfeit themselves. 
In the evenings they may be seen returning to the loch, sailing majestically over the tree-tops, or hovering 
a minute or two above the banks of the brawling torrent to pick up some stranded object. 
“ In the Outer Hebrides there are breeding-colonies on nearly all the islands. There are several in 
Lewis, which occupy small grass-covered islets on the freshwater lakes there, and also one or two in North 
List. Mr. Harvie Brown found about twenty-five pairs nesting, with the eggs hard sat upon, on an island 
in a loch near Lochmaddy, on the 14th of May, 1870. There are likewise important stations on some of 
the Inner Hebrides, one of these being the island of Rum, where the birds are seen occupying isolated rocks 
round the coast, safe from molestation. On St. Kllda, where several hundred pairs are found breeding, they 
are very much disliked by the natives, in consequence of the depredations which they commit among the 
nests of the other birds. Mr. Elwes (Ibis, 1869), while visiting the island of Dun, one of the St.-Kilda 
group, thus speaks of their manner of thieving: — ‘After searching for some time, I looked over a cliff and 
saw, fiir helow me, a broad flat ledge, on which hundreds of Fulmars were sitting among the stones. 
I descended with a rope we had brought from the “ Harpy,” as none of those the natives had were long 
enough. Two of the young men followed me, coming down hand over hand at a tremendous pace. As soon 
as the Fulmars were disturbed from their eggs, the Black-backed Gulls came swooping down, and carried 
them off in their beaks, much to the indignation of my companions, who hate the ‘Farspach’ (as they call 
Larus marmus) with a deadly hatred, and practise all sorts of barbarities on them whenever they catch them, 
as they are terrible robbers of eggs.’ ” — Birds of the West of Scotland, p. 488. 
The figure on the accompanying Plate is about three fourths of the size of life. 
