larly on our low-lying moors in April, and were in every
way worse " vermin " than even the Grey Crows; no
Highland keeper could express himself more strongly
in condemnation of any flying creature. Mr. T. E.
Buckley is quoted in ' Yarrell' as saying that this Gull
eats a great deal of grain in the spring months in
Sutherland—a charge that I do not remember to have
heard made against any other species of the Gull-family.
For some reason that I have hitherto been unable to
discover, I have never managed to keep this Gull alive
at Lilford for any considerable length of time. In my
experience in our district of Northamptonshire, this is
the least common of the six species of Gull that
habitually visit our valley, but as the young birds are
not to be distinguished in the mottled plumage of their
first two or three years from those of the Herring-Gull,
I make this statement principally from the evidence of
my ears, as there is a very marked difference between
the cries of the two species. The Lesser Black-back
is common in certain parts of the Mediterranean, whilst
comparatively unknown in others ; I consider it to be
more frequent in the eastern than the western portion
of that sea, although we found it breeding in considerable
numbers on the little islet of Alboran. It
was constantly seen by our party on the south coast of
Cyprus in April and May.