BLACK-HEADED GULL. 117 



Sir "William Jardine writes, "They arc particular in 

 the choice of a breeding-place, at least some which we 

 would think suited for them, are passed or deserted, 

 and others more unlikely are selected. We possess a 

 reedy loch which was for many years a haunt of these 

 birds, but the edges were planted and they left it; ten 

 years afterwards, dnd when the plantation had grown 

 up, a few pairs returned, and in time increased to a 

 large colony, when an artificial piece of water was made 

 by damming up a narrow pass in an extensive muir, 

 nearly two miles distant; thither the Gulls resorted the 

 following spring, leaving their ancient ground; and they 

 have been increasing in numbers for some years past." 



