BLACK-HEADED GULL 215 



In spring these Gulls come about the farms to 

 follow the plough, filling the new-made furrows 

 from end to end, hovering in a cloud over the plough- 

 man's head and following at his heels, a screaming, 

 fighting multitude. Wilson's expression in describing 

 a northern species, that its cry " is like the excessive 

 laugh of a negro/ 'is also descriptive of the language 

 of our bird. Its peculiar cry is lengthened at will 

 and inflected a hundred ways, and interspersed 

 with numerous short notes like excited exclamations. 

 After feeding they always fly to the nearest water to 

 drink and bathe their feathers, after which they 

 retire to some open spot in the neighbourhood where 

 there is a carpet of short grass. They invariably sit 

 close together with their bills toward the wind, and 

 the observer will watch the flock in vain to see one 

 bird out of this beautiful order. They do not stand 

 up to fly, but rise directly from a sitting posture. 

 Usually the wings are flapped twice or thrice before 

 the body is raised from the ground. 



In some seasons in August and September, after 

 a period of warm, wet weather, the larvae of the large 

 horned beetle rise to the surface, throwing up little 

 mounds of earth as moles do ; often they are so 

 numerous as to give the plains, where the grass has 

 been very closely cropped, the appearance of being 

 covered with mud. These insects afford a rich harvest 

 to the Spur-winged Lapwing (Vanellus cayennensis), 

 which in such seasons of plenty are to be seen all 

 day diligently running about, probing and dis- 

 lodging them from beneath the fresh hillocks. The 



