GREAT BLACK-HEADED GULL. 51 



colonies, and even in winter is more or less gregarious. It 

 feeds on small fishes, but also catches insects on the wing, 

 according to Seebohm, after the manner of a Swallow or a 

 Goatsucker. In winter the same observer states that it feeds 

 principally on marine animals of various kinds, which it picks 

 up on the shore or finds floating on the water. 



Nests. Those found by the late Mr. Meves on Lake Ladoga 

 were built of leaves, sedges, and grass, the lining being finer 

 than the rest of the nest, which was placed on almost floating 

 islets of tangled plants. Both male and female incubate. 



Eggs. Three in number, but sometimes four. Ground- 

 colour olive-brown to clay-brown, spotted with chocolate brown, 

 inclining to blackish, the spots in several examples examined 

 showing a tendency to form confluent blotches near the larger 

 end, the underlying purplish-grey spots not being very promi- 

 nent. The similarity of some of the eggs to those of the 

 Common Tern is evident, and it is doubtful whether some of 

 the eggs of L. minutus in the Seebohm collection are not really 

 those of Sterna fluvicttilis. 



The Little Gull was found by Russow nesting in Esthonia in 

 company with the Common Tern, an unfortunate circumstance 

 for egg-collectors, as Seebohm says, " for the eggs of the two 

 species are absolutely indistinguishable." Meves distinguished 

 them by the colour of the yolk, which was rich orange-red in 

 the Gull, and ochre-yellow in the Tern. Apropos of this, how- 

 ever, Seebohm states that he was informed by J. E. Palmer 

 that he obtained eggs of the Herring Gull in Ireland, and that 

 those eggs which had a dark ground-colour had deep-coloured 

 yolks, whilst those with a pale ground-colour had pale yolks. 

 Axis, 1-5-1-8 inches ; diam. 1-15-1-25. 



II. THE GREAT BLACK-HEADED GULL. LARUS ICHTHYAETUS. 



Larus ichthyaetus, Pall. Reise Russ. Reichs, ii. p. 713 (1773); 

 Dresser, B. Eur. viii. p. 369, pi. 598 (1873); B. O. U. 

 List Brit. B. p. 190 (1883) ; Saunders, ed. Yarrell's Brit. 

 B. Hi. p. 609(1884); id. Man. Brit. B. p. 653 (1889); 

 Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xxiv. (1893) ; Saunders, Cat. 

 B. Brit. Mus. xxv. p. 176 (1896). 



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