280 BIRDS. 



for that curse the wireworm constitutes it undoubtedly a 

 friend and ally of the farmer. In summer the head and 

 neck of this gull are white, but in winter they are spotted 

 or streaked. The bill is yellow at the tip, darker at its 

 base. It makes a large nest of grass and seaweed on some 

 islet, and close to the water. Eggs, 3, 2^ inches; light 

 brown, with black blotches. 



The Herring-Gull, a larger bird than the last, is found 

 breeding on all our coasts. I have seen its eggs, sometimes 

 Herring- from above and in anything but pleasant places, 

 Gull. near Dover, Hastings, and Torquay, and have 



found the nest with young just outside Lulworth Cove, 

 in Dorset, and west of Polruan, in Cornwall. The name 

 is not a very happy one, for most other gulls will follow 

 and harry the herring and pilchard shoals, besides which 

 this bird feeds a good deal on sloping fields on the downs, 

 and is a great egg- lifter. It is easily recognised by the 

 sharp contrast of the black of the folded wings, the tips 

 having some bright white spots, and by the yellow-and-red 

 bill. The head and neck, pure white in summer, are, as in 

 the last, streaked in winter. Like the other gulls, this 

 bird is no diver. I have had them round my lugger when 

 fishing the whole day eight or ten miles from the Cornish 

 coast. The seafowl in those parts seem to be but little 

 molested by the fishermen, if one can judge at least by the 

 absence of fear. I have had herring- gulls and black- 

 headed gulls and guillemots (or " murrs ") all feeding on 

 whatever I threw them. To the gulls the most suitable 

 offering was a dry fish that had been caught some time, 

 and that would consequently float while they tore pieces 

 from it. Otherwise they liked best a fresh wrasse, which, 

 from the buoyancy of its distended air-bladder, would also 

 float. As soon. as I threw a piece of wet fish, however, 

 which immediately sank, the gulls would merely hover 

 over it, seemingly unable to snatch it from even an inch 

 or two beneath the surface. Then came the turn of the 



