LARID.^:. 



649 



'^VM 



^^- 



THE BLACK-HEADED GULL. 



Larus ridibundus, Linnceus. 



This species — which might more appropriately be called the 

 Brown-headed Gull, for the hood is certainly not black — is generally 

 distributed throughout the year on the flat portions of our shores, 

 resorting in spring to marshy situations near the sea-coast and often 

 to inland meres. Drainage, cultivation, commerce (as in the town 

 of Fleetwood), and other causes, have led to the destruction of 

 many ' gulleries,' though the birds have simply betaken themselves 

 to other situations, and are probably as numerous as ever. The 

 most western colony appears to be in the vicinity of Poole in Dorset ; 

 there is — or was — one in Romney INLirsh in Kent ; several, as Mr. 

 Miller Christy tells me, are to be found on the coast of Essex ; and 

 there are two or three in Norfolk, including the well-known Scoulton 

 Mere. At least one important settlement is near Brigg in Lincoln- 

 shire, and there are smaller ones in Yorkshire ; those of Norbury 

 and Aqualate Mere in Staffordshire have been celebrated for cen- 

 turies ; while northward, there are several — including ^^'alney Island 



