TASMANIAN SILVER GULL. 
Like the other Bruchigavice it frequently congregates in immense flocks, and 
colonies of many hundreds have been found breeding together, sometimes on 
the marshes, at other times on the low small islands : a colony of this kind 
existed on Great Actaeon Island in D’Entrecasteaux’s Channel, when I visited 
it in 1838. 
“ The flight of this little Gull is light and buoyant in the extreme ; it 
runs over the surface of the ground with lightness and great facility, and 
is altogether one of the most beautiful and fairy-like birds I have ever met 
with.” 
Mr. Frank M. Littler,* notes the following : “At Davenport it is to be 
seen in hundreds at low tide on the sandbanks just below Wood’s Slip, left bare 
by the receding tide. As the tide comes in they move off to the mouth of 
the harbour and out to sea. Some go up the river towards Latrobe and search 
for food along the shores of the sedge-grown sand-banks, where I am given 
to understand many nest. Round Launceston wharves and on the mud-flats 
of the Tamar, large flocks may be seen every day in the year. The same may 
be observed about any of the rivers and harbours round the island. 
“ Every winter the low-lying lands up the valley of the North Esk become 
flooded for longer or shorter periods. To these swampy flats the Silver Gulls 
resort in hundreds, and feed on the young grass-grubs and worms that have 
been washed out. Every evening, shortly before sunset, the birds may be 
seen winging their way harbourwards, following the course of the river all the 
while, from St. Leonards to the wharves. At the Great Lake a flock has been 
firmly established for some time ; they breed on a rocky islet in the middle 
of the Lake.” 
Legge,t writing on the birds at the Great Lake, Tasmania, records : “ This 
is perhaps the most interesting bird on the Great Lake, inasmuch as it may 
safely be regarded as to some extent a resident species, and therefore actually 
a freshwater bird. It used to breed on Garden Island, a small rocky inlet, 
for the most part covered with vegetation. A number of old nests were seen 
in March 1902, situated in the niches and hollows of the greenstone which 
crops up at the west end of the isle. In 1903 (March) no new nests were 
observed, and the inference is that since the erection of the police station 
and tourists’ hut close by on the adjoining shore, the birds have deserted 
this spot, and probably now breed on Pine or Kangaroo Island. At the tirrie 
the writer visited the lake in both years these little Gulls were very plentiful, 
but, contrary to their normal habit on the sea coasts, were very shy. They 
were never observed to come within gunshot from the boat ; the only time 
* Handb. Birds Tasm., p. 153, 1910. 
t Emu, Vol. IV., p. 105, 1905. 
