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 à 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 'Métivier'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 do not appear so much spotted as in the young Herring Gull; the feathers on the scapulars and wing-coverts were just beginning to show two shades of brown, as in the more mature state; the same may be said of the primary quills, which were also just beginning to make their appearance; the tail, which was only just beginning to show, was nearly black, margined with white.
171. BROWN-HEADED GULL. Larus ridibundus, Linnaeus. French, "Mouette rieuse."[[36]] This pretty little Gull is a common autumn and winter visitant to all the Islands, remaining on to the spring, but never breeding in any of them, though a few young and non-breeding birds may be seen about at all times of the summer, especially about the harbour. Being a marsh-breeding Gull, and selecting low marshy islands situated for the most part in inland fresh-water lakes and large pieces of water, it is not to be wondered at that it does not breed in the Channel Islands, where there are no places either suited to its requirements or where it could find a sufficient supply of its customary food during the breeding-season. Very soon after they have left their breeding-stations, however, both old and young birds may be seen about the harbours and bays of Guernsey and the other islands seeking for food, in which matter they are not very particular, picking up any floating rubbish or nastiness they may find in the harbour. The generality of specimens occurring in the Channel Islands are in either winter or immature plumage, very few having assumed the dark-coloured head which marks the breeding plumage. This dark colour of the head, which is sometimes assumed as early as the end of February, comes on very rapidly, not being the effect of moult, but of a change of colour in the feathers themselves, the dark colouring-matter gradually spreading over each feather and supplanting the white of the winter plumage; a few new feathers are also grown at this time to replace any that have been accidentally shed—these come in the dark colour. The young birds in their first feathers are nearly brown, but the grey feathers make their appearance amongst the brown ones at an earlier stage than in most other gulls. The primary quills, which are white in the centre with a margin of black, vary also a good deal with age, the black margins growing narrower and the white in places extending through the black margin to the edge, so that in adult birds the black margins are not so complete as in younger examples.
Professor Ansted mentions the Laughing Gull in his list, by which I presume he means the present species, and marks it as only occurring in Guernsey. There is no specimen in the Museum. As it is just possible that the Mediterranean Black-headed Gull, Larus melanocephalus, may occur in the Islands,—as it does so in France as far as Bordeaux, and has once certainly extended its wanderings as far as the British Islands,—it may be worth while to point out the principal distinctions. In the adult bird the head of L. melanocephalus in the breeding-season is black, not brown as in L. ridibundus, and the first three primaries are white with the exception of a narrow streak of black on the outer web of the first, and not white with a black margin as in L. ridibundus. In younger birds, however, the primaries are a little more alike, but the first primary of L. melanocephalus is black or nearly so; in this state Mr. Howard Saunders has given plates of the first three primaries of L. melanocephalus and L. ridibundus, both being from birds of the year shot about March, in his paper on the Larinae, published in the 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society' for the year 1878.
172. LITTLE GULL. Larus minutus, Pallas. French, "Mouette pygmée."—I have never met with this bird myself in the Channel Islands, nor have I seen a Channel Island specimen, but Mr. Harvie Brown, writing to the 'Zoologist' from St. Peter's Port, Guernsey, under date January 25th, says, "In the bird-stuffer's shop here I saw a Little Gull in the flesh, which had been shot a few days ago."[[37]] Mr. Harvie Brown does not give us any more information on the subject, and does not even say whether the bird was a young bird or an adult in winter plumage; but probably it was a young bird of the year in that sort of young Kittiwake or Tarrock plumage in which it occasionally occurs on the south coast of Devon.
Professor Ansted does not include the Little Gull in his list, and there is no specimen in the Museum.
173. GREAT SHEARWATER. Puffinus major, Faber. French, "Puffin majeur."[[38]]—I think I may fairly include the Great Shearwater in my list as an occasional wanderer to the Islands, as, although I have not a Channel Island specimen, nor have I seen it near the shore or in any of the bays, I did see a small flock of four or five of these birds in July, 1866, when crossing from Guernsey to Torquay. We were certainly more than the Admiralty three miles from the land; but had scarcely lost sight of Guernsey, and were well within sight of the Caskets, when we fell in with the Shearwaters. They accompanied the steamer for some little way, at times flying close up, and I had an excellent opportunity of watching them both with and without my glass, and have therefore no doubt of the species. There was a heavyish sea at the time, and the Shearwaters were generally flying under the lee of the waves, just rising sufficiently to avoid the crest of the wave when it broke. They flew with the greatest possible ease, and seemed as if no sea or gale of wind would hurt them; they never got touched by the breaking sea, but just as it appeared curling over them they rose out of danger and skimmed over the crest; they never whilst I was watching them actually settled on the water, though now and then they dropped their legs just touching the water with their feet.
The Great Shearwater is not mentioned in Professor Ansted's list, and there is no specimen in the Museum.
174. MANX SHEARWATER. Puffinus anglorum, Temminck. French, "Petrel Manks."—The Manx Shearwater can only be considered as an occasional wanderer to the Channel Islands, and never by any means so common as it is sometimes on the opposite side of the Channel about Torbay, especially in the early autumn. I have one Guernsey specimen, however, killed near St. Samson's on the 28th September, 1876.[[39]] As far as I can make out the Manx Shearwater does not breed in any part of the Channel Islands, but being rather of nocturnal habits at its breeding-stations, and remaining in the holes and under the rocks where its eggs are during the day, it may not have been seen during the breeding-season; but did it breed anywhere in the Islands more birds, both old and young, would be seen about in the early autumn when the young first begin to leave their nests; and the Barbelotters would occasionally come across eggs and young birds when digging for Puffins' eggs.