Their Eggs and Nests. 189 



in thousands, is on Scoulton Mere, in Norfolk ; an- 

 other at Pallinsburn, in Northumberland ; and a third, 

 in Lincolnshire, not far from Brigg. They have, 

 within the last few years, bred in somo numbers at 

 Lockerdam, near Bolton Castle, in Wensieydale. The 

 nests are made of sedges, grass, and the flowering 

 part of the reed, and are not very deeply cup-shaped. 

 The bird lays three eggs, and there is a very great 

 degree of variation between them in respect of colour 

 and markings ; the ground colour being sometimes of 

 a light blue or yellow, and sometimes green, or red, or 

 brown. Some, too, are thickly covered with spots, 

 and others scarcely marked with a single speckle or 

 spot. In more than one of their great breeding-places 

 the right of gathering the eggs was rented, and some- 

 times upwards of a thousand eggs collected in a single 

 day. When the first laying of eggs is taken, a second 

 batch, and even a third, is produced ; but in each 

 successive instance, the eggs become less. They are 

 used as the Pewit's eggs are, and also for culinary 

 purposes. — Fig. 1, plate XL 



^3(, THE GREAT BLACK-HEADED GVLL—(Lartis 



icJithycetiis\ 



One or two specimens only. 



COMMON Q^\A^--{Lar7is canus). 



Winter Mew, Sea Mew, Sea Mall or Maw, Sea Gull, 

 Sea Cob, Cob. — This Gull is, on the whole, sufficiently 

 general and well known on all parts of our coast to 

 merit the prefix of Common, which is usually applied 

 to it. For though it is essentially a sea-bird, yet 



