254 BIKDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



deposited on the moss during the breeding-season. 

 For, as far as the nests have extended, and even some- 

 what farther, the change in the herbage may be dis- 

 tinctly traced." The birds first appear on the breeding 

 ground early in March, the date varying slightly accord- 

 ing to the state of the weather, and a continual increase 

 goes on till towards the end of April. Eggs may be 

 found the middle of that month, but early May is the 

 most usual time, and nearly all the 3'oung are hatched 

 by the beginning of June. Old and young take their 

 departure between the end of June and the beginning 

 of August. The eggs, which are very varied in shape 

 and markings, are three or four in number, and are laid 

 at first simply in a slight depression of the ground, or 

 in a tuft of rushes, but as incubation progresses a more 

 or less carefully built nest of dry grass, rushes, or 

 straws, is reared round them. The Black-headed Gull 

 is not at all uncommon in many inland localities in 

 spring, or after stormy weather. 



LITTLE GULL. 



Larus minutus, Pallas. 



A rare winter visitor ; the records are : — 

 " One killed at Formby " (Byerley, " Fauna of Liver- 

 pool, 1856"). One shot near Preston, and now in the 

 possession of Mr. Salisbury, Ashton-on-Ptibble. One 

 shot November 1st, 1880, on the Mersey, off New Brighton 

 (W. Bell, Zool., 1881, p. 27). "A specimen was brought 

 to a Barrow bird-stuffer about five years ago " (W. A. 

 Durnford, "Birds of Walney," 1883). 



[One near Piossall, January 1889, Mr. Hugh P. 

 Hornby in letter to Pt. J. Howard. — Ed.] 



