BLACK-HEADED GULL. 



BLACK-HEADED GULL. 



PEEWIT GULL. RED-LEGGED GULL. 



PLATE CCXX1I. FIGURE III. 



Larus ridibundus, LINNAEUS. LATHAM. 



r I ^HIS pretty-looking- bird resorts to fenny places 

 -*- and the sides of pools and inland waters and their 

 islands to breed, and vast multitudes congregate to- 

 gether for the purpose, as well both near the sea and 

 far from it, even to the lands adjoining the sea itself, 

 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 four in number, are laid the 

 middle or end of April, or beginning of May, chiefly 

 at the latter season, and are hatched the end of May 

 or early in June. They vary exceedingly in colour 

 and markings; some are light blue, others yellow, and 

 others green, red, or brown. Some have scarcely any 

 spots, and others are thickly covered with marks of 



