LA RUS FUSCUS, Linn.

Lesser Black-backed Gull.

Larus fuscus, Linn. Faun. Suec., p. 55.

flavipes, Meyer, Taschenb., tom. ii. p. 469.

Larotdes melanotus, harengorum, et fuscus, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl., pp. 747, 748, 749.
Leucus fuscus, Kaup, Natiirl. Syst., p. 86.

Clupeilarus fuscus, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., tom. ii. pe 220:

Dominicanus fuscus, Bruch, Monogr. in Caban. Journ. fiir Orn. 1853, p. 100, sp. 6.

 

 

Tue Lesser and the Greater Black-backed Gulls of the European avifauna are so precisely alike in form
and colouring, that it is by the great difference in their size alone that they can be distinguished from each
other. Generally speaking, these two nearly allied but really distinct species (for such, notwithstanding
their similarity, every ornithologist considers them) frequent different rocks for the purpose of breeding ; and
though in some localities they are associated, still there are others, and even countries, where one is found
while the other is entirely absent ; for instance, the Lesser Black-backed Gull is not mentioned as occurring
in Iceland, where the greater species is common; and the same may be said with respect to America. As
regards the coasts of the British Islands, it is to be found on every part of them at one season or another.
It nests on many parts of the rocky shores of Ireland, as shown by that careful observer Thompson, who
mentions the Gobbins, on the north coast, the Horn in Donegal, the coast of Connaught, the largest of the
Sovereign Islands, near the barbour of Kinsale, the cliffs near Howth, in the county Dublin &c. as places in
which it is known to breed, and enumerates several other localities in which its nests have been found. In
Scotland, according to Macgillivray, it is generally dispersed along the coasts, and permanently resident—
but in some districts is of rare occurrence, and in the northern more so than in the southern, probably from
their beg more adapted for affording secure breeding-places. It is usually not uncommon, in the winter
season, in the Firths of Tay, Forth, and Clyde, where very few, however, remain to breed. Mr. Selby
mentions that himself and Sir William Jardine obtained the eggs and young of this species upon one of the
islands of Loch Awe, and observed many colonies in Sutherlandshire, one upon Loch Shin, and another upon
one of the islands of Loch Laighal. It breeds also in the Hebrides, Orkney, and Shetland. In England it
is numerous, at all seasons, on the Northumberland coast and those of the south-eastern, southern, and
western counties, and also in Wales. Professor Nilsson states that it is common about the Baltic and on
the coast of Norway; and Mr. Wheelwright shot one example in Lapland. It also occurs in Holland,
France, Belgium, Dalmatia, the islands of the Adriatic, and in Italy. Loche states that it is found in
Algeria; Messrs. Elwes and Buckley noticed it on the Black Sea; the Rev. H. B. Tristram on the Lake of
Galilee, in Palestine, and mentions that it is plentiful on the coast of Syria in winter; Dr. von Heuglin
states that he saw several pairs, throughout the year, on the Red Sea and in the Gulf of Aden ; Mr. Yarrell
mentions that it is also found in Barbary and Egypt, and that specimens have been received from Trebizond,
in Persia; and, lastly, we know that it visits India, but appears to be rare in that country, sice Dr. Jerdon
says he only obtained a young bird far inland, near Jaulna, in the Deccan, but did not again meet with the
species, and is not aware of its having been procured by any one else.

“ The flight of this bird,” says Macgillivray, ‘is peculiarly elegant, easy, and buoyant, with the wings
considerably curved. Its ordinary cry is loud, mellow, and somewhat plaintive, and when a number join in
emitting it, which they sometimes do when assembled for repose on an unfrequented beach or island, may
be heard at a great distance, and is then far from being unpleasant. It also emits occasionally a cackling or
laughing cry, more mellow than that of the Greater Black-backed Gull. It searches for food on the open
sea, in estuaries, on the beaches, and frequently on the land, sometimes flying to a great distance from the
coast. Small fishes, crustacea, echini, shell-fish, land-molluseca, and earth-worms are its habitual food ; but
it also eats of stranded fishes, and devours young birds. When shoals of herrings are in the bays, creeks,
or estuaries, it may often be seen in great vumbers, intermingled with other gulls ; but when reposing,
whether on the sea or on the land, it generally keeps separate, in small flocks.

‘In May they betake themselves to unfrequented islands, headlands, and sometimes to inland lakes, often
in considerable numbers, and there remain until their young are able to fly, although they make extensive
excursions around in search of food. Their nests, composed of withered grass and other herbage, are
placed in hollows formed in the turf, or in superficial chinks of the rocks. Me eggs, generally three in
number, differ considerably in size and much in colour, but are usually about two inches and nine twelfths in