650 BLACK-HEAUED GUI.L. 



— in Lancashire, and a considerable number in Cumberland and 

 Northumberland. In Scotland they are even more plentiful, some 

 of the largest being near Glasgow, at Inchmoin on Loch Lomond, 

 and in Perthshire, Moray and Elginshire, while smaller ones are 

 found as far north as the Shetlands ; a stray bird has even been 

 obtained in St. Kilda, the most western locality on record. In 

 Ireland this is perhaps the commonest of the genus. 



The Black-headed Gull nests in one locality in the Faeroes, and 

 sparingly in .Southern Norway and Sweden, but in Russia it ex- 

 tends to Archangel, becoming abundant southward. It is widely 

 distributed over the rest of Europe down to the Mediterranean, 

 where its most southern breeding-haunt appears to be in the island 

 of Sardinia ; in winter it ascends the Nile to Nubia, visits the Red 

 Sea, and ranges from Palestine to the Persian Gulf and the coast 

 of India. On the elevated mountain lakes of the great Asian 

 plateau its representative in summer is the somewhat larger 

 L. briin?ieicej>/iaius, which has a i)aler hood and a different wing- 

 pattern ; our bird, however, inhabits the temperate portions of 

 Siberia as far as the Sea of Okhotsk, and is plentiful in the lower 

 portions of Japan and China, especially during the cold season. 



The nests, built of sedge, flags &c., are placed on clumps of rushes, 

 grass-tussocks, masses of bog-bean, or on the bare ground ; the 

 eggs, normally 3 in number, though 4 are sometimes found, vary 

 from an olive-brown to a pale green, blue, or even salmon ground- 

 colour, with blotches of black and dark brown : average measure- 

 ments 2 "2 by I '5 in. In ordinary seasons laying begins by April 

 1 8th, the eggs being systematically collected for eating in many 

 places until some time in May. To the farmer this Gull is a bene- 

 factor, devouring large numbers of grubs and worms, while it has 

 been seen to capture cockchafers and moths on the wing ; in fact 

 it is almost omnivorous. From its hoarse cackle it is often called 

 the Laughing Gull ; also the ' Peewit ' or ' Peewit-Gull.' 



The adult in spring-plumage has a dark brown hood — which is 

 lost in winter ; french-grey mantle ; white tail and under parts, the 

 latter with a pink tinge ; outer primaries characterized by white 

 centres and darii margins to the inner luebs. The bird figured in 

 front shows traces of immaturity in the dark tip to the tail and the 

 brown mottlings on the wing-coverts. Length 16 in., wing 12 in. 

 The young bird is shown in the background ; its outer primaries are 

 chiefly dark brown, but at an early period a streak of white, which 

 increases in size with age, makes its appearance along the middle of 

 the inner web. 



