42 BRITAIN'S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 



opinions of parties directly interested. The fisherman 

 complains of its fishing and fiy-eating, where a more 

 impartial obsei*ver is struck by the small proportion of 

 these gulls which really engage in fishing ! In the 

 farmer's estimation, the fact that it sometimes eats newly 

 sown grain outweighs all other considerations. A couple 

 of years ago a report was drawn up on this subject for 

 the information of the Cumberland County Council. In 

 it the results of a hundred ' post-mortems ■" on Black- 

 headed Gulls were given. It was found that both fish 

 and grain form a very inconsiderable proportion of 

 their food. Earth-worms, however, are a staple article 

 of diet. But the proportion of wire-worms, crane-fly 

 larvae, and other pests is large enough to do more than 

 balance all the harm the bird is responsible for. In 

 spite of this obviously favourable verdict, a recommenda- 

 tion was made that legal protection be removed for a 

 time, lest an abnormal increase take place and the species 

 be driven to more harmful ways of supporting existence ! 

 This inconsistent recommendation has met with the severe 

 criticism it deserved, but has nevertheless been acted on 

 in Cumberland and elsewhere. A more authoritative 

 report on the food of birds has since been published 

 for the Board of Agriculture, and in this paper the 

 opinion that the Black-headed Gull is on the whole 

 decidedly favom'able to man is emphatically stated. It 

 is to be hoped that this may have the effect of having 

 the species reinstated as a protected bird, for meanwhile, 

 we know, an amount of egg-looting is going on at the 

 gulleries which cannot but have, in a few years, a 

 disastrous effect. 



