76 
BLACK-HEADED GULL. 
lakes, and ponds, and for the remainder of the year resort 
to the sea-shore and the mouths of the larger rivers. 
They arrive at their summer quarters generally in the month 
of March, but some about the middle or latter end of February, 
and leave again the end of July or beginning of August. 
Many must leave the country in the autumn, and return 
again in the spring, the numbers of those seen in the latter 
seasons and the summer being so very great. 
These birds are easily kept in confinement in suitable places, 
such as walled gardens, but continue shy and timid. T. E. 
Wilkinson, Esq., of Walsham Hall, has written me word of 
his having kept one of them alive and well for nearly a year, 
and it was at last killed by a dog, having unfortunately 
wandered out of its bounds. 
They may be seen at times perched on low bushes, the top 
of a boat-house, or the upright stump of a tree, in the places 
where they build. 
The young were formerly considered good eating, and some 
proprietors used to make from fifty to eighty pounds a year 
by their sale. 
Their flight is easy, noiseless, and buoyant, and they some¬ 
times hover for a short time over their prey, and then dash 
on it into the water. They do not usually resort to swimming. 
On the land they run about in a light and graceful manner. 
They frequently hunt for insects in the twilight, and have 
been seen so late as between nine and ten o’clock at night, 
and heard returning from their forage at still later hours. 
In winter they become very shy. 
They feed on small fish and insects—cockchaffers, May-flies, 
beetles, and moths; as also on slugs, worms, shrimps, butts, 
and other Crustacea, and, if need be, on water-plants. The 
first-named, if of the fresh-water kinds, they hawk for at a 
height of ten or twelve feet in the air, and on descrying the 
object, they lower their course, and, skimming the surface, 
pick it up. They almost always follow the course of the 
stream, and in winter advance up rivers in the morning, going 
downwards again towards night. In the spring months they 
resort to ploughed lands, following the plough in quest of 
worms and insects; and in summer repair to water. ‘During 
the heat of the day, many of them disperse up and down 
throughout the corn, pasture, and fallow fields, in search of 
food. These they beat with great diligence, traversing them 
again and again, at a height of about ten feet as before. 
