324 BLACK-HEADED GULL. 



but, as its name implies, it is of course much smaller, 

 being about half the size. 



It breeds upon sandy flats and makes no nest but 

 perhaps a slight hollow in the ground. The eggs, 

 generally three in number, vary like those of the 

 Common and Arctic Terns and are very similar in 

 appearance, but are much smaller. 



In Hewitson's time (fifty years ago) a colony bred 

 annually on the sandy shore of the mainland of 

 Northumberland nearly opposite Holy Island. He 

 gives the following account of them : " To this 

 locality about thirty or forty pairs annually resort, 

 depositing their eggs upon those small patches of 

 gravel which are most like them, both in size and 

 colour ; and so strong in many instances is the re- 

 semblance, that an unpractised eye would find great 

 difficulty in detecting the eggs at first sight. Mr. J. 

 Hancock has carefully brought away the eggs, and 

 the gravel upon which they rested ; and even thus, 

 without the spreading beach around them to add to 

 the delusion, the resemblance is very close. In a 

 ramble along the coast with the Messrs. Hancock, 

 we had the pleasure of finding at the place I have 

 just mentioned between twenty and thirty nests of 

 this bird, and all within a circuit of a few yards. It 

 was the first week in June." 



BLACK-HEADED GULL. 



LARUS RIDIBUNDUS. 



Family Larid^. Genus Larus. 



Brown-headed Gull— Pewit Gull— Sea Crow— Red-legged Gull. 



The Black-headed Gull is a very numerous species, 

 congregating sometimes in enormous colonies. It is 



