BLACK-HEADED GULL. 
73 
at least satisfactorily; they have several local names, such as 
Pick or Pit Birnet, Sea Maws, Sea Swallows, etc., but how 
far these bear upon their proper denomination, I have found 
no one sufficiently versed in the natural history of birds in 
this neighbourhood to determine. 
Whatever may be their proper name, it is, I believe admitted 
that they first came to Pallinsburn above eighty years ago, 
at a time when a large bog or lake, something similar to 
our own, was drained near the town of Kelso; how long 
they had previously been known to visit there, I have heard 
no one say. 
An impression, though an erroneous one, has generally 
prevailed, that they are so regular in their migrations as to 
come and leave on a given day. Now, although so constant 
in their habits year after year, such is not the fact, as I have 
known them vary as much as two weeks. The real state of 
the case is, that their arrival depends entirely on the state 
of the weather about the end of the month of February. If 
that month is fine and open, they begin in small numbers 
to hover about, in the neighbourhood of the pond, by about 
the 20th.; they increase in numbers daily, each day drawing 
nearer to it; in the course of a week they alight on the 
water for about an hour in the forenoon, then stay on it, 
also increasing perhaps an hour or two every day, until, if 
the spring continues fine, about the end of the first week in 
March they finally remain all night, and may be then said 
to be permanently located for the season. This is, however, 
not always so. I remember, about ten or twelve years ago, 
after having begun to build their nests, a severe snow-storm 
came on, and they at once went away for a week or two, 
and we almost imagined they had forsaken the pond, but the 
very first fresh morning that dawned, even before the snow 
had disappeared, they were there as busy as ever. 
Their nests are of course built on the little islands in the 
pond, which are grown over with reeds and bulrushes, and 
are made merely of little pieces of stick or straw, being 
similar to that of the Plover in a field. Their eggs also most 
closely resemble those of that bird, both in number, colour, 
shape, and taste, being highly prized by some people for their 
eating. The young ones, as soon as hatched, take to the water, 
where they are go be seen in thousands, and the sight at that 
time of the year is most interesting. As they begin to take 
