•326 ' LARIDyE. 



observed a few years ago about the island of a lake near Sliercock, 

 county Cavan."^ On aflat island — a building-liaunt — in one of the 

 Mayo lakes^ Mr. R. Ball and I saw many of them in July 1834, 

 and that gentleman's brother, either in 1840 or 1841, reckoned 

 about fifty pair at their breeding-islets in two other lakes of that 

 county — Levally and Conn — but more at the former one. Both 

 lakes were said to have been frequented by the species from time 

 immemorial. In the evening they left these haunts in flocks, and 

 flew to the distance of five or six miles, to feed on the moths which 

 appeared in abundance above the meadows that had been flooded 

 during the winter. In Loughs Mask and Corrib (Galway) this gull 

 is said to nidify in great numbers. t Many oihsr fresh-water lakes 

 throughout the island are doubtless frequented by it for incu- 

 bation ; — such only have I known it resort to, in Ireland, for 

 that purpose. On some of the low flat islands on the sea-coast 

 at the mouth of the Thames, it is said to build, J and is described 

 in general terms by Degland, in his ' Ornithologie Europeenne,' 

 as breeding on the borders of the sea at the embouchure of rivers 

 (vol. ii. p. 327). 



The black-headed gulls retire from most of their breeding- 

 places so soon as the young are able to leave them, but about a 

 great expanse of water like Lough Neagh they remain longer : 

 at the end of September 1834, I remarked many there, and 

 considered it not improbable that they jnay be permanently resi- 

 dent, making feeding excursions to the ploughed lands on its 

 banks, as the species elsewhere does from the sea- shore. 



Just after the breeding season numbers frequent the oozy 

 banks of the river Lagan, over which the tide flows, where they 

 continue tlu"ough the autumn, but towards winter, move to the 

 bay. Very early in spring they again appear far up the Lagan, 

 which is their daily resort until breeding time arrives : — many 

 are in the upper parts of the estuary from August until May= 

 * Mr. T. W. Warren. f Mr. R. J. Moutgomcry. + Yarrcll, 



