The Gulls. 



20I 



occasionally visits our shores in some 

 numbers, and occurs nearly every 

 autumn and winter. It breeds on the 

 lakes of Northern and Central Russia, 

 the nest being on the marshy ground, 

 and composed of leaves, grass and 

 sedge. The eggs are three or four 

 in number, and are like those of the 

 Common Tern : they measure from 

 an inch-and-a-half to an inch-and- 

 three-quarters in length. 



This 1 a r tr e 



THE GREAT 

 BLACK-HE.\DED 



GULL, 



{Lams ichtltyaetus.) 



See p. 202. 



Gull, \v h i c h 

 measures about 

 two - and - a - half 

 feet in length, is 

 e a s i 1 \' distin- 

 guished b}- its size from all the other 

 Hooded Gulls. It is an mhabitant 

 of South-eastern Russia and Central 

 Asia, and a summer-plumaged indi- 

 vidual was shot near Exmouth in 

 May or June, 1859. The changes of 

 plumage are similar to those under- 

 gone by the smaller Hooded Gulls. 



The bright 



THE 



MEDITERRANEAN 



BLACK-HEADED 



GULL. 



(Lnnis melanocephalus. 



See />. 202. 



The Little Gull. 

 Bonap.\rte's Gull. 



coral-red bill 



of this species, contrasting with the black head, distinguishes 

 it from the allied Hooded Gulls. The back is light pearly 

 grey. The young birds may be told by the black on 

 both sides of the shaft of the second and third primary. 

 The species inhabits the countries of the Mediterranean and 

 the Black Sea, and has twice been shot in England, once on Breydon Broad, near 

 Yarmouth, and once at Barking; both specimens occurred in winter. 



This North-American species has been noted about half a 

 dozen times in Great Britain, specimens having been shot in 

 Ireland and Scotland as well as in England. It has a black 

 bill, and the hood is of a leaden black, and in the young birds 

 there is no black on the inner margin of the shaft of the third primary, and very 

 little on the inner web of the first and second. Bonaparte's Gull breeds in colonies 

 on the lakes of the interior of North America and makes a nest of sticks in a tree. 



BONAPARTE'S 

 GULL. 



[Larits philndelpJiin.) 



