BLACK-HEADED GTJLL. 77 



"When any suitable object meets their eye, they immediately 

 rcund to, alight on the ground, and generally keeping their 

 wings extended upwards, seize it.' The ghost-moth is a 

 favourite object of pursuit on the still summer evenings, when 

 it hovers over the grass or swarms about trees. 



'It is indeed a most amusing and interesting sight to witness 

 the elegant evolutions of these beautiful birds when in pursuit 

 of these large moths, oftentimes brushing the surface of the 

 ground with their downy breasts, and generally capturing 

 with facility the moth as it hovers at a distance of from one 

 to two feet from the earth. Occasionally, however, the bird 

 misses its aim, and the moth, by the rapid motion of the 

 Gull, is struck to the ground. The bird, however, nothing 

 dismayed, hovers for a few seconds over the retreat of its 

 fallen prey, and if it perceives it embedded in the grass, pounces 

 upon it, or if disappointed flies off in search of another prize.' 

 May-flies also they course after over the streams almost like 

 Swallows. 



The same writer from whom I have made the above quotation, 

 Mr. Archibald Jerdon, adds, in the 'Zoologist,' page 246, 'I 

 have repeatedly seen numbers of them flying about long 

 after sunset, and lately I have remarked that they come abroad 

 in the evening apparently for the purpose of catching insects, 

 which they do on the wing, after the manner of the Swallow 

 tribe. On the 22nd. of this month, I watched the proceedings 

 of a number of these birds by the banks of the Jed, between 

 nine and ten o'clock. There was a small grove of trees at 

 a short distance from the river, to which some of them resorted, 

 flying from one extremity to the other, and returning again, 

 all the while seemingly engaged in the pursuit of insects of 

 some kind. Their motions were much the same as those of 

 Swallows, although somewhat slower; they sometimes remained 

 hovering and suspended while catching an insect, so long and 

 so near the trees, that I thought they were going to alight. 

 Others of them scoured the fields and the water-side, and 

 others again followed the course of the river; but all appa- 

 rently intent on the capture of some winged prey.' 



The note is a hoarse cackle, 'cack, cack, cack, cack,' which 

 has been likened to a laugh, from whence one of the trivial 

 names of the bird. Where large numbers dwell together a 

 great din is produced. 



They are very anxious about their young, and stoop and 

 dash at an intruder again and again. As soon as the brood 



