BRITAIN^S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 33 



cution, they have taken to building in trees, is frequently 

 cited. The nest itself may be a mere hollow in the 

 turf, but it is usually a fair-sized heap of herbage, with 

 a depression in the top to contain the eggs. These are 

 usually three, but often only two in number. In colour 

 they vary veiy considerably, but olive-brown and green 

 eggs, with dark-brown blotches, are typical. Eggs may be 

 laid before April is out, but incubation does not become 

 general till mid-May. 



The young are down -clad, but at first inactive, a 

 characteristic of cliff nestlings ; obviously the mortality 

 would be too great if they took to running about the 

 ledges at too early an age. The down is huffish brown 

 in colour, with dark-brown spots. The first real plumage 

 is quite different from the adults'", all the feathers being 

 closely mottled with brown, while the bjll and the legs 

 are dark. This plumage is retained till the autumn of 

 the following year. Then, and every subsequent autumn, 

 a new plumage is substituted for the old, becoming 

 each time more like the white and silver livery of the 

 adult. In captivity, at any rate, it takes five years for 

 all brown feathers to disappear, and even after that the 

 proportion of black in the quills is said to decrease 

 with age. In winter the head of the adult bird is 

 speckled finely with light brown. 



Man is undoubtedly the Herring Gull's worst enemy. 

 In early summer the eggs are regularly taken for food 

 on most parts of the coast, and at all times the birds 

 themselves are common victims of shore - shooting. On 

 the Continent, in both France and Germany, as we have 

 witnessed, it is considered ' sport ' to go out in a boat 

 and shoot down the unwary Gulls, leaving them on the 

 water to perish painfully of their wounds. In this 

 country, fortunately, worthier ideas for the most part 



