BLACK-HEADED GULL. 6 1 



is found nesting in large numbers in Scotland, as far north as 

 the Shetland Islands. In Ireland, Mr. Ussher says, it has 

 breeding colonies, large and small, on bogs and on small 

 islands in lakes, sometimes of tens of thousands, as on Killeen- 

 more Bog near Tullamere, sometimes of but a few pairs. It 

 is reported to breed in Donegal, Antrim, Down, Armagh, 

 Monaghan, Fermanagh, Cavan, Westmeath, King's County, 

 Queen's County, Tipperary, Kerry, Limerick, Clare, Galway, 

 Roscommon, Mayo, and Leitrim. A few breed on Beginish, 

 a small flat island in the Blasquet group, an unusual instance of 

 a marine breeding-place. 



Range outside the British Islands. The present species is 

 found, according to Mr. Saunders, throughout Europe from 

 the Faeroes, Southern Norway and Sweden, Russia, from 

 Archangel down to the Mediterranean, and across tempe- 

 rate Asia to Kamtchatka, where it also breeds. In winter 

 it visits Senegambia, Nubia, and the Red Sea, the Persian 

 Gulf and the Indian Ocean, China, Japan, and the Philip- 

 pines. 



Habits. The name " ^/r/^-headed Gull" is a decided 

 misnomer for this species, for the hood is brown rather than 

 black, and it is the more inappropriate as there are some Gulls 

 of this group which have absolutely black caps. It is a 

 gregarious species, nesting in colonies, and even in the autumn 

 and winter congregating in flocks, which frequent tidal harbours 

 and are often a conspicuous feature at pier-heads when the tide 

 comes in. I have often seen them circling within a few feet of 

 the heads of the visitors at Gorleston Harbour, on the east 

 coast, and one of the most interesting features of the day was 

 to go and throw food to these pretty creatures at the end of 

 the pier. They are almost equally tame on the Thames when 

 they ascend the river in winter. 



Many accounts have been published of visits paid by 

 naturalists to "gulleries" of this species, one of the most 

 renowned being at Scoulton in Norfolk, of which the late Mr. 

 G. Dawson Rowley has given the following account : 



" The first intimation of the proximity of the Gulls was a 

 flight of them feeding in a cornfield near Scoulton Church, 



