Black-headed Gull. 531 



224. BLACK-HEADED GULL (Larus ridibundus). 



I consider this to be the most common species of Gull on our 

 British coasts ; and the immense numbers which congregate 

 together for breeding purposes at their well-known haunt, 

 Scoulton Mere, in Norfolk, must be seen to be understood. This 

 is a true cosmopolite, and I have met with it both near the 

 Arctic circle and within the tropics. One specimen I brought 

 home from Nubia, which I shot on the Nile no less than seven 

 hundred miles up the river : and it has been repeatedly found 

 as far from the sea as the lakes of Central Asia. Occasionally it 

 is found in North Wilts, and Mr. Grant has received specimens 

 from Biddestone, near Chippenham, in August, 1873, and a few 

 days later from Cheverell ; and in October, 1878, from Broadleas, 

 near Devizes. It is often seen on Salisbury Plain and on the 

 downs of South Wiltshire, following the ploughman after the 

 manner of Rooks, and greedily devouring the grubs which are 

 thus exposed. For it differs from all its congeners in the 

 localities it frequents, turning its back on the sea and the sea- 

 shore, and preferring freshwater lakes and rivers, and meadows 

 and plains ; and when the breeding season comes, resorting to 

 some chosen inland morass or marsh, and not to the precipitous 

 rocks overhanging the sea, which is the usual nesting-place of 

 the Gulls. The eggs laid by this species vary in colour and in 

 markings more perhaps than those of any other species; and, 

 though they differ from them much in colour and still more in 

 shape, are often sold to the indiscriminating public in London 

 and elsewhere as Plovers' eggs. Perhaps as a salve to the 

 conscience of such fraudulent dealers, this species is provincially 

 called the ' Peewit Gull.' The specific name, ridibundus, ' full 

 of laughter,' in German, Lachmeve ; in French, Mouette rieuse ; 

 in Norsk, Skratt Mdse, are all derived from the hoarse cackling 

 note which is generally supposed to resemble a human laugh. 

 It is also called the ' Sea Crow,' ' Mire Crow,' and ' Blackcap/ 

 Cordeaux says it is an unfailing weather prophet, and that when 



342 



