326 COMMON GULL. 



for eating purposes, where the birds are not protected, 

 as they are without the fishy taste common to the 

 eggs of most sea birds. In the breeding season they 

 feed upon worms and insects, and they may be seen 

 in large colonies, like Rooks, quartering the fields for 

 these. At other times small fish are added to the 

 fare. 



The nests are placed upon the ground, and consist 

 of slight hollows, lined with sedges, grass, and reeds. 



The eggs are two or three in number, rarely four, 

 and vary very considerably ; pale green, grey, or buff 

 being the ground colour, spotted, blotched, and streaked 

 with dark brown and greyish brown. The markings also 

 undergo considerable variation, some eggs being scarcely 

 spotted at all, while others are thickly covered. 



The Black-headed Gull in its breeding plumage has 

 a brownish-black hood, the back and wings French 

 grey, the latter margined with black, and the rest of 

 the plumage pure white. After the breeding is over, 

 this bird, in common with several others of the Gulls 

 and Terns, throws off its black hood and its head be- 

 comes perfectly white. 



COMMON GULL. 



LARUS CANUS. 



Family Larid^. Genus Larus. 



Sea Gull— Sea Mew— Winter Mew— Sea Cob— Sea Mall- 

 Storm Gull. 



The Common Gull is a resident bird in Scotland and 

 Ireland, but in England is only a winter visitor, having 

 deserted its last breeding colony on the coast of Lanca- 

 shire now more than thirty years ago. 



