76 



THE OOLOGIST 



tail; mandibles yellowish-brown; legs 

 and feet light orange. Sixteen inches. 

 AVinter resident? 



The Black-headed gull is by far the 

 commonest bird at Vevey and their 

 screams n:ay be heard at any hour of 

 the day or night. From dawn until 

 sunset they wing their way tirelessly 

 up and down the shores of the lake, 

 ever on the look out for any edible 

 morsel. They are great divers, closely 

 rivaling our American King fishers,, 

 and it is not an uncommon sight to 

 see one suddenly fold its immaculate 

 wings, dro]3 into the water and emerge 

 with a struggling perch or other fish. 

 The other gulls, however, are quick to 

 notice any such movement and have 

 no hesitancy in making their brother's 

 life a burden until the luckless fish 

 slips down its captor's throat. 



Moulting commences very early 

 among the old birds and at this date 

 (February 6th) .many of them are in 

 full summer plumage. The yearlings 

 however have not started to change 

 to the breeding plumage as yet. 



At sundown hundreds of these birds 

 congregate on the rocks along the 

 edges of the lake and in places one 

 would think that they were plaster 

 rather than rock, so white are they 

 from innumerable coatings of lime. 



The usual cry is a harsh Kak! Kak! 

 Kak! repeated several times. The 

 birds have another cry which closely 

 resembles that of the Cooper Hawk 

 and still another which sounds like 

 laughter and has earned for the birds 

 their name of Ridibundus. 



The Black-headed gulls nest in large 

 communities, placing their nests of 

 reeds and decaying vegetation in 

 close proximity to each other among 

 standing reeds or similar cover. The 

 three or four eggs are greenish-buff, 

 spotted and blotched with dark brown, 

 black and grey, 2.2 x 1.5 in. 



Out of the breeding season the 



birds may be found following the 

 l)lough in search of grubs and worms 

 and in almost any place where there 

 is sufficient water. 



It is not a particularly easy bird to 

 photograph. Their movements are 

 very fast and they are very hard to 

 approach unless there is a continual 

 stream of bread or other food thrown 

 to them. Twenty-four plates were ex- 

 posed before the two pictures shown 

 herewith were obtained. It was an 

 hour and a quarter's wait after I set 

 up my camera before a gull was kind 

 enough to rest himself on the pile 

 shown in the picture. At last! I said 

 to myself, as I pushed the button, but 

 imagine my dissappoiutment a minute 

 later on finding that I had forgotten to 

 draw out the plate-holder slide! We 

 have all been there, and I think it is 

 unnecessary to mention the names 

 which I called that poor innocent pile, 

 gull and camera. After this the birds 

 were more considerate and I had but 

 fifteen minutes to wait before one 

 alighted on my pile and allowed me 

 to photograph him. The picture of 

 the young gull was a lucky snap-shot 

 and although I was trying to photo- 

 graph the bird in flght, I had not ex- 

 pected him to drop his food so con- 

 veniently. 



At what time the birds leave Vevey 

 and at what place they carry on the 

 duties of reproduction, I am unable to 

 say, but as they start nesting in Eng- 

 land in April, I should imagine that 

 they would leave here sometime dur- 

 ing that month. According to Bor- 

 aston, the English Ornithologist, the 

 Black-headed species nests on small 

 islands in lakes or ponds throughout 

 the British Isles. If this be so, the 

 birds may possibly nest somewhere 

 in the vicinity of Lake Leman, but 

 it seems more probable to nje that 

 they fly to some inaccessible spot 

 nearer to the coast rather than to rear 



