t quite tell at what age the
Common Gull begins to breed, for, although I have a pair which have laid
regularly for the last two years (they have not, however, hatched any
young, which perhaps is the fault of the Herring Gulls, whom I have
several times caught sucking their eggs), I do not know what their age
was when I first had them as I did the Herring Gulls from Sark and the
Lesser Black-backs from Burhou; I can only say when I first had them
they had the bills and legs blue; in fact they were in the state in
which they are the "Mouette a pieds bleus" of Temminck.

Professor Ansted includes the Common Gull in his list, and marks it as
occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There is no specimen in the Museum.

170. GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. _Larus marinus_, Linnaeus. French,
"Goeland a manteau noir."--The Great Black-backed Gull is by no means so
numerous in the Channel Islands as the Herring Gull and the Lesser
Black-back, and is here as elsewhere a rather solitary and roaming bird.
A few, however, remain about the Channel Islands, and breed in places
which suit them, such as Ortack, which I have before mentioned, as the
breeding-place of the Razorbill and Guillemot; and we found one nest on
one of the rocks to the north of Herm, but it had been robbed, as had
all the other Gulls' nests about there; we saw, however, the old birds
about, and Mr. Howard Saunders found one nest on the little Island of Le
Tas, close to Sark; it was quite on the top of the Island, and there
were young in it. I have one splendid adult bird, shot near the harbour
in Guernsey, in March: I should think this is rather an old bird, as,
although there are slight indications of winter plumage on the head, the
white tips of the primaries are very large, that of the first extending
fully two inches and a half, which is considerably more than that of a
fully adult bird I have from Lundy Island. The Great Black-backed Gull
is sufficiently common and well known to have a local name in
Guernsey-French (Hublot or Ublat), for which see 'Metivier's
Dictionary.'

Professor Ansted includes the Great Black-backed Gull in his list, and
marks it as only occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There are three
specimens in the Museum--an adult bird, a young one, and a young one in
down, with the feathers just beginning to show. In the young bird the
head and neck were mottled and much like those of a young Herring Gull
in the same state; the back, thighs, and under parts d