YOUNG BLACK-HEADED GULL SWIMMING. 

 About five weeks old 



THE BLACK-HEADED GULL 



"All day long their nesting haunt is a scene of animated life" 



By BENJAMIN HANLEY 



"With Photographs by the Author 



AT RES and acres of heather, stretch- 

 1\ ing as far as eye can follow, broken 

 here and there with great whin 

 bushes ablaze with gold, silver birch, 

 mountain ash, or dark spruce fir. Along 

 the horizon stretch dark pine woods be- 

 loved of the wood pigeon, and just in front 

 long, narrow streaks of silver tell of marsh 

 and fen or boggy pool, the haunt of the 

 waterfowl — wild duck, coot, moorhen, or 

 little grebe — and here, too, nests the 

 Black-headed Gull {Lams ridibimdiis). 



As one approaches, a vast flock of 

 Gulls, thousands in number, arise from 



their nests amid the reeds and sedges 

 fringing the pools. Higher and higher 

 they rise, presently to wheel and turn in 

 all directions, all the while creating a 

 clamour well-nigh deafening. The Gulls 

 arrive at these inland nesting haunts in 

 considerable numbers about the third 

 week in March, and the eggs may be found 

 about the second week in April and until 

 the end of June. 



The nest, built up of aquatic grasses, 

 is placed amongst the reeds fringing the 

 pools. In some cases scarcely a handful 

 of material is used, on odd occasions 



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