ZOOLOGICAL NOTES 113 



it, and it makes a most interesting addition to his little collection 

 of birds of his own shooting and mounting. The body was sent 

 to me for dissection, when the bird proved to be a female. The 

 plumage still shows a few traces of immaturity, so that the bird is 

 probably a young female of last year. ROBERT SERVICE, Maxwell- 

 town. 



Whimbrel in the Firth of Forth in Winter. The Whimbrel 

 (Numenius phaopus) is so seldom met with in this district, except 

 on passage in spring and autumn, that I send you the dates of two 

 occurrences I have noted recently. The bird first observed was 

 at Longniddry Bay on nth February; the other was seen at the 

 mouth of the Tyne on the i6th of the same month. I am unaware 

 of any previous records of this bird's presence in the Firth of Forth 

 and its vicinity in the winter months. T. G. LAIDLAW, Edinburgh. 



The Food of the Brown-headed Gull. The question as to 

 whether the Brown-headed Gull (Larus ridibundus) consumes the 

 fry of Salmonidre in large numbers has lately agitated the County 

 Council of Cumberland. Perhaps some readers of the " Annals " 

 may be in a position to speak positively as to the truth of the 

 suggestion that this Gull is ichthyophagous. In my own experience, 

 the evidence points to this bird being largely insectivorous. In the 

 spring of the year, the Brown-headed Gulls swarm upon freshly 

 ploughed land in this neighbourhood. They are then feeding 

 chiefly on grubs and earthworms, but corn is sometimes swallowed, 

 particularly barley. As the season advances, beetles of different 

 kinds are eagerly sought for, and are supplied to the young along 

 with earthworms. When the young are fledged, many of them join 

 the adults upon the sandy flats of our estuaries, where they feed on 

 small mussel shell and other bivalves, as well as any stray animal 

 substances, of small bulk, that may be washed up on the beach. I 

 have never seen this Gull feeding on carrion, though it will devour 

 most kinds of refuse. The Herring Gull will occasionally tear at 

 the carcase of a dead dog as eagerly as a Great Black-backed Gull. 

 But the Brown-headed Gull is more fastidious. Perhaps winged 

 insects are most to its taste, particularly certain moths, species of 

 Noctuas, for which it hawks over the hay-fields with grace and 

 beauty. But on the sands this Gull follows flocks of Waders, 

 particularly of Bar-tailed Godwits (Limosa lapponica). When a 

 Godwit catches a marine worm, the attendant Gull darts at its 

 neighbour, and endeavours to compel the long-billed bird to drop 

 its prey. If this manoeuvre proves successful, the Gull bolts the 

 wriggling worm before it has time to burrow in the wet sand. I am 

 told that the Brown-headed Gull often feeds upon sand-eels, but 

 though I have watched individual Gulls for hours at a stretch, I 

 cannot say that I have ever seen them capture any little fishes. I 

 30 E 



