THE BLACK-HEADED GULL 89 



more plentiful right up as far as the Shetlands. In 

 Ireland it is the commonest species of its family. 



To the farmer the services of this Gull are invaluable. 

 Like the Rook it follows the plough, devouring vast 

 quantities of worms and grubs. It can capture moths 

 and cockchafers on the wing, and will eat indeed almost 

 anything, acting also like others of its congeners as a 

 scavenger of the foreshores. Farming in districts near 

 the coast benefits greatly from the services of these birds. 

 They are partial to snails also, and as no Gull feeds on 

 plants, seeds or fruits, a Gull in a garden, wing-clipped, 

 is often kept as a useful pet. 



This Gull is sixteen inches in length, that is almost as 

 big as a crow. The beak is not strong, the point is curved 

 downwards; the head a beautiful dark-brown. This 

 colour extends to the throat. There is a white ring 

 round the eyes. Neck and mantle a beautiful ashen- 

 grey, throat, breast and underparts white, with pinkish 

 tinge; outer primaries dark with w : hite stripes. The 

 upper parts of the wings are light grey; beak and legs 

 carmine, also the irides and their borders ; the toes are 

 joined together by a web. The head becomes white in 

 winter, the beak and feet lose their brilliant red colour 

 and become flesh colour, and then brownish. It nests 

 with others in settlements consisting sometimes of 3000 

 to 4000 nests. The nest is placed on broken reeds, turf 

 clods, tufts of rushes ; the bird, without much skill, 

 makes a little heap, scratches a hollow in it, smoothes 

 the inside, prepares a litter of dry rush and sedge leaves, 

 and the nest is finished. The nests are placed close 

 together. The clutch consists of two or three eggs, very 

 rarely four, usually of a yellowish clay colour, marked, 

 or regularly speckled with a dark shade. 



