BLACK-HEADED GULL 



PEEWIT GULL RED-LEGGED GULL. 



PLATE CCXXI I. FIGURE III. 

 Laws ridibunduS) . . . LINNVEUS. LATHAM. 



THIS abundant and regular visitant breeds in many parts 

 of the United Kingdom, resorting to fenny places and 

 the sides of pools and inland waters and their islands to 

 breed, and vast multitudes congregate together for the 

 purpose, near the sea and on the adjoining lands, if low and 

 marshy. 



The nest is flat, and a composition of grass or the tops 

 of reeds and sedge, placed, perhaps, on a tuft of rushes or 

 other such herbage. 



If the first set of eggs be taken a second is laid, and a 

 third if the second, but in such cases they are less each 

 time in size. They are valued as food, and in some places 

 are farmed for the purpose. 



The eggs, three or rarely four in number, are laid in the 

 middle or end of April, or beginning of May, and are 

 hatched the end of May or early in June. They vary 

 exceedingly in colour and markings ; some are olive brown, 

 others yellow, and others green, red, or salmon colour. 

 Some have scarcely any spots, and others are thickly 



covered with spots of different shades of brown and reddish 



156 



