666 BLACK-HEADED GULL. 
the Borders to the Shetlands; and a stray bird has even been 
obtained in St. Kilda. In Ireland this species is very abundant and 
widely distributed, and there is even a colony on one of the Blasquet 
Islands, the most western land in Europe to the south of lat. 57°. 
The Black-headed Gull nests in one locality in the Feeroes, and 
sparingly in the south of Norway and Sweden, but in Russia it 
extends to Archangel. Southward it is abundant and widely dis- 
tributed over the rest of Europe, down to the Mediterranean, where 
it breeds as far south as the island of Sardinia; and it also nests in 
Asia Minor. In winter it ascends the Nile to Nubia, visits the Red 
Sea, and ranges from Palestine to the Persian Gulf, Northern India, 
and along the coast as far as the Bay of Bengal. On the elevated 
mountain lakes of the great Tibetan plateau its representative in 
summer is the larger ZL. drunnezcephalus, which has a paler brown 
hood and a different wing-pattern ; our bird, however, inhabits the 
temperate portions of Siberia as far as Kamchatka in summer, visit- 
ing Japan, China, and the Philippines during the cold season. 
The nests, built of sedge, flags &c., are placed on clumps of 
rushes, grass-tussocks, masses of bog-bean, or on the bare ground ; 
the eggs, normally 3 in number, though 4 are sometimes found, 
vary from olive-brown to pale green, or even blue and pinkish-buff 
in ground-colour, blotched with black and dark brown: measure- 
ments 2‘2 by 1°5 in. In ordinary seasons laying begins soon after 
mid-April, the eggs being systematically collected for eating in 
many places until some time in May. Incubation lasts fully 
three weeks (W. Evans). To the farmer this Gull is a great 
benefactor, devouring large numbers of grubs and worms, and 
capturing cockchafers and moths on the wing; while it eats bread 
freely in winter, and is, in fact, almost omnivorous. From its 
hoarse cackle it is often called the Laughing Gull; also the ‘“Peewit” 
or “ Peewit-Gull.” The fact that this species commonly alights on 
trees and bushes has been known to observant naturalists for the 
last half-century or longer. 
The adult male in spring has a dark brown hood; french-grey 
mantle ; white tail and under-parts, the latter with a pink tinge ; the 
outer primaries being characterized by white centres and dark 
margins to the inner webs, At the autumn moult the brown hood 
disappears, but is sometimes reassumed as early as December. 
Length 16 in., wing 12 in. Inthe young bird the outer primaries 
are chiefly dark brown, but at an early period a streak of white, 
which increases in size with the age of the feather, makes its appear- 
ance along the middle of the inner web. 
