78 BLACK-HEADED GULL. 



are able to fly, they scatter about the neighbourhood, to feed 

 on moist meadows and such places; whence they are shortly 

 conducted by their parents to the nearest coast. 



This pretty-looking bird resorts to fenny districts and the 

 sides of pools and inland waters and their islands to breed, 

 and vast multitudes congregate together for the purpose, as 

 well both near the sea as farther from it, and on the lands 

 adjoining the sea itself, if low and marshy. 



The nest is flat, and a composition of grass or the tops of 

 reeds and sedge, placed, perhaps, on a tuffc of rushes or other 

 such herbage. 



If the first set of eggs be taken a second is laid, and a 

 third if the second, but in such cases they are less each time 

 in size. They are valued as food, and in some places are 

 farmed for the purpose. 



The eggs, two, three, or sometimes, it is said, four in number, 

 are laid the middle or end of April, or beginning of May, 

 chiefly at the latter season, and are hatched the end of May 

 or early in June. They vary exceedingly in colour and mark- 

 ings; some are light blue, others yellow, and others green, 

 red, or brown. Some have scarcely any spots, and others are 

 thickly covered with marks of different shades of brown and 

 reddish brown. One beautiful variety has been described, the 

 ground-colour a very light greenish white, blotted with two 

 shades of rich brown. In some instances they are found 

 entirely white. 



The young birds leave the nest and betake themselves to 

 the water as soon as hatched. 



Sir William Jardine writes, 'They are particular in the 

 choice of a breeding-place, at least some which we would think 

 suited for them, are passed or deserted, and others more 

 unlikely are selected. We possess a. reedy loch which was for 

 many years a haunt of these birds, but the edges were planted 

 and they left it; ten years afterwards, and when the plan- 

 tation had grown up, a few pairs returned, and in time 

 increased to a colony, when an artificial piece of water was 

 made by damming up a narrow pass in an extensive muir, 

 nearly two miles distant; thither the Gulls resorted the 

 following spring, leaving their ancient ground; and they have 

 been increasing in numbers for some years past.' 



Male; weight, ten ounces; length, one foot four to nearly 

 one foot five inches; bill, deep vermilion red; iris, dark brown; 

 the eyelids deep vermilion red, less bright in winter, a 'ew 



