666 BLACK-HEADED GULL. 



the Borders to the Shetlands ; and a stray bird has even been 

 obtained in St. Kilda. In Ireland this species is very abundant and 

 widely distributed, and there is even a colony on one of the Blasquet 

 Islands, the most western land in Europe to the south of lat. 57°. 



The Black-headed Gull nests in one locality in the Faeroes, and 

 sparingly in the south of Norway and Sweden, but in Russia it 

 extends to Archangel. Southward it is abundant and widely dis- 

 tributed over the rest of Europe, down to the Mediterranean, where 

 it breeds as far south as the island of Sardinia ; and it also nests in 

 Asia Minor. In winter it ascends the Nile to Nubia, visits the Red 

 Sea, and ranges from Palestine to the Persian Gulf, Northern India, 

 and along the coast as far as the Bay of Bengal. On the elevated 

 mountain lakes of the great Tibetan plateau its representative in 

 summer is the larger L. briumeicephalus^ which has a paler brown 

 hood and a different wing-pattern ; our bird, however, inhabits the 

 temperate portions of Siberia as far as Kamchatka in summer, visit- 

 ing Japan, China, and the Philippines during the cold season. 



The nests, built of sedge, flags &c., are placed on clumps of 

 rushes, grass-tussocks, masses of bog-bean, or on the bare ground ; 

 the eggs, normally 3 in number, though 4 are sometimes found, 

 vary from olive-brown to pale green, or even blue and pinkish-buff 

 in ground-colour, blotched with black and dark brown : measure- 

 ments 2 '2 by I '5 in. In ordinary seasons laying begins soon after 

 mid-April, the eggs being systematically collected for eating in 

 many places until some time in May. Incubation lasts fully 

 three weeks (VV. Evans). To the farmer this Gull is a great 

 benefactor, devouring large numbers of grubs and worms, and 

 capturing cockchafers and moths on the wing ; while it eats bread 

 freely in winter, and is, in fact, almost omnivorous. From its 

 hoarse cackle it is often called the Laughing Gull; also the "Peewit" 

 or "Peewit-Gull." The fact that this species commonly alights on 

 trees and bushes has been known to observant naturalists for the 

 last half-century or longer. 



The adult male in spring has a dark brown hood ; french-grey 

 mantle ; white tail and under-parts, the latter with a pink tinge ; the 

 outer primaries being characterized by white centres and dark 

 margins to the inner webs. At the autumn moult the brown hood 

 disappears, but is sometimes reassumed as early as December. 

 Length 16 in., wing 12 in. In the young bird the outer primaries 

 are chiefly dark brown, but at an early period a streak of white, 

 which increases in size with the age of the feather, makes its appear- 

 ance alons; the middle of the inner web. 



