XXIII.— THE GULL. 



" Sauntering hither on listless wings." — Bret Harte. 



For some reason or other, the warmer seas are 

 mot rich in species of Gulls, and so these graceful 

 tirds are not so numerous with us as one used to 

 European sea-ports would expect to find them. 

 Indeed, all round the wide extent of the coasts of 

 the Indian Empire not nearly so many Gulls are 

 iound as have|been recorded from the British Islandsi 

 and in our part of India only one species can be c ; lied 

 really common. This is the Brown-headed Gull 

 (Larus brunneicephalus), a familiar enough object 

 to any one who keeps bis eyes open when in sight 

 of the Hooghly during a large part of the year. After 

 the hot weather has well set in, however, it leaves 

 us for the high regions of Central Asia, where it 

 breeds, though 'no one has as yet been lucky enough 

 to take the eggs, which are therefore as yet 

 undescribed. It is not likely, however, that they 

 will be very different from the usual brown and 

 spotted type found in the family. 



It is only just before it leaves us that the Gull 

 dons its brown hood, and its general plumage, of white 



