As a breeding species in England it is rather scarce, chiefly owing to lack of suitable places, but in Scotland it is abundant. It is a bold and majestic species, with a fine soaring flight, but we must acknowledge that it is terribly destructive to weakly lambs and young water-fowl. Practically omnivorous, nothing comes amiss to this rapacious bird, and its food consists largely of carrion and other refuse of the shore. Although it has often been denied, this and other species of Gulls can completely immerse themselves and pick up food from the bottom in at least three feet of water, and we have repeatedly observed them do so in captivity. Having marked some food at the bottom of the water, they rise to a height of about four feet and forcibly precipitate themselves into the water with half-open wings; they are nevertheless extremely buoyant, and occasionally bob up on to the surface again before they have attained their object. An isolated “stack” or islet in a loch is commandeered by a pair of these birds for their summer home. The nest, composed of grass and rubbish, is usually placed on the highest point. They lay two or three eggs, which are stone buff in colour, blotched and spotted with light brown and grey. The most usual note is a deep “ow, ow, ow.” In plumage the adult is almost the counterpart of the preceding, but the legs are flesh-coloured. Length 23 in.; wing 19 in. The young are mottled and barred with various shades of brown and buff, but are rather lighter in colour than those of the Herring Gull. The adult plumage is assumed by precisely the same stages as in the other species, and they may occasionally become fully adult in their third summer. THE GLAUCOUS GULL Larus glaucus, O. Fabricius This large white-winged Gull is an annual visitor to the north of Scotland, but southwards it becomes scarcer, and it is only in very severe weather that it visits the south of England. Its breeding range is circumpolar, its nearest breeding-place to our shores being in Iceland. [Illustration: GREATER BLACK-BACKED GULL _Larus marinus_ Summer (right). Young, first autumn (left)] The mantle and wings are pearl-grey, with white tips to the secondaries and outermost webs of the quills. Orbital ring vermilion. Legs pink. Immature birds are whitish uniformly and thickly mottled with ash grey. Length 29 in.; wing 18 in. THE ICELAND GULL Larus leucopterus, Faber This species is very closely allied in plumage and habits to the preceding. It is a winter visitor to the shores of Scotland, only coming south in severe weather. It breeds on Jan Mayen Islands and Greenland, and is only a winter visitor to the island whose name it bears. Except in size it is almost a counterpart of the Glaucous Gull, but the orbital ring is flesh-coloured, and the legs yellowish. Length 22 in.; wing 16 in.