Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/352

326 occasionally seen in summer. Previously to 1855 a few pairs bred on a little rocky islet in Lough Talt, situated in the Ox Mountains, County Sligo, about ten miles from the sea. I have seen the young birds, scarcely fledged, on the lough, and an old man living close by told me they have always bred there. Since 1855, however, boats have been put on the lake for the use of trout-fishers, and the place has become too much disturbed, especially in May, for the gulls to resort there for breeding.

Herring Gull, Larus argentatus.—Resident and common; breeding on the cliffs of Downpatrick Head.

Lesser Black-backed Gull, Larus fuscus.—On the contrary, is rare. I have seldom met with it.

Great Black-backed Gull, Larus marinus.—Common on the estuary during winter, and ten or twelve pairs nest on the pillar-like rock of Downpatrick Head. Tins rocky pillar, situated about one hundred yards from the mainland, with deep water between, is about one hundred and fifty feet high, with perpendicular sides, and is quite inaccessible. There are numerous shelf-like ledges along the sides formed by the decay of the softer strata, and on these ledges both species of Cormorants, Guillemots, Razorbills, Herring Gulls, and Kittiwakes rear their young in safety, quite free from molestation by man. The Great Black-backs keep possession of the flat grassy top, and rear their young apart from the ledge-breeding birds. About the end of May this rock and the cliffs of the mainland present one of the most pleasing sights that a lover of nature could wish for. Some few years ago the Great Black-backed Gulls of this locality were nearly exterminated by poison. The tenant of the Bartragh rabbit-warren, being much annoyed by rats, which swarmed in the burrows and destroyed the young rabbits, laid poisoned meat and poisoned rabbits all about the sand-hills. The Gulls, always on the look out for food, devoured this bait greedily, and were afterwards found lying dead in all parts of the island. The following winter I do not remember seeing more than one or two Gulls about the sands; indeed it took several years before their numbers at all came up to what they were before this wholesale poisoning took place.

Iceland Gull, Larus islandicus.—Occasionally seen in winter, but not every year. Those met with are generally immature birds, in that cream-coloured garb which I take to be the second year's plumage. I have only once seen it in the adult state, and on