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LAKES AND STREAMS 



and Asia Minor, and a few remain in Germany and elsewhere, especially at the 

 mouths of the large rivers. The black-headed gull ranges from St. Kilda to 

 Japan, and from Archangel to the Philippines, while its breeding-area extends 

 fn mi the Faeroes to Kamchatka. It nests in large colonies, which are encour- 

 aged owing to the commercial value of the eggs for manufacturing purposes. 

 From one of these colonies in Norfolk as many as forty-four thousand eggs 

 have been collected in one season, though of late years the supply has greatly 

 diminished, owing probably to so few being left to hatch. The nests are 

 little more than heaps of water-plants placed on clumps of rushes or grass 

 or on the bare ground, though sometimes they are afloat, and, rarely, in a tree 



ADCI.T BLACK-HEADED c;ULLS. 



or on some low building by the water-side. The eggs vary greatly in size 

 and shape and colour: and though three is the normal number, as many as six, 

 seven, or eight have been found in one nest, which need not, however, have been 

 laid by the same bird. Laughing-gulls are no cowards when their young are in 

 danger, and make a brave defence even against dogs and men : herons and swans 

 are mobbed and driven on' by pecking them on the head, and birds-of-prey are 

 simply hustled off the gullery without ceremony. On the water these gulls swim 

 with raised tails and crossed wings, but they do not dive, owing perhaps to the 

 lightness of their bodies. The flight is buoyant, with many circles and hovering, 

 and on alighting the tail is spread, the wings are raised, and the feet moved as 

 if running in the air. The food is mainly small fish, captured by dashing into 

 the water while on the wing, but much of the diet consists of insects and worms, 



