XXIIL THE GULL 



tc Sauntering hither on listless wings. ," Bret Harte. 



FOR some reason or other, the warmer seas are not 

 rich in species of Gulls, and so these graceful birds are not 

 so numerous with us as one used to European sea-ports 

 would expect to find them. Indeed, all round the wide 

 extent of the coast? of the Indian Empire not nearly so 

 many Gulls are found as have been recorded from the 

 British Islands ; and in our part of India only one species 

 can be called really common. This is the Brown-headed 

 Gull (Larus brunneicephalus), a familiar enough object to 

 any one who keeps his eyes open when in sight of the 

 Hooghly during a large part of the year. After the hot 

 weather has well set in, however, it leaves us for the high 

 regions of Central Asia, where it breeds, though no one has 

 as yet been lucky enough to take the eggs, which are there- 

 fore as yet undescribed. It is not likely, however, that 

 they will be very different from the usual brown and 

 spotted type found in the family. 



It is only just before it leaves us that the Gull dons its 

 brown hood, and its general plumage, of white below and 

 French-grey above, is so much of a Tamily livery that it 

 would not be very distinctive if there were several species 

 to be confounded together here. But this is not the case, 

 for the only other Gull one is at all likely to see in Calcutta 



