Volume 40, Plate XXVI / Ornithology (Birds)

Lesser Black-Backed Gull

Larus fuscus

A handsome gull long confounded with the Great Black-backed but distinguished by its lesser size and yellow legs and a less maritime habit, the breeding dress white with deep blackish grey mantle and wings, black quills with white tips, and a vermilion ring round the eyelids, about two feet long. It breeds on inland marshy moors, freshwater loch islands, and sea-cliffs, follows rivers many miles inland, and ranges from Orkney to Italy, Egypt, and the Red Sea.