70 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



primaries mainly white, "with black tips, and black margins to the inner webs. 

 Shafts of the three outer quills white; the outermost quill white, with a narrow 

 black line along the greater part of the outer web (touching the shaft in all except 

 very old birds), a black tip, and a blackish edge to the inner margin; second 

 quill similar, but with merely a short hair line of black on the outer web ; third 

 quill with a trifle more black running upwards from the black tip along the outer 

 web; fourth quill similar, but with a grey centre to the inner web; fifth quill 

 white on both webs, and with a minute white tip ; sixth similar, but the tip grey 

 and broader, so that the black becomes a sub-terminal bar; seventh similar, but 

 with less and fainter black ; upper primaries grey ; secondaries paler grey, without 

 conspicuous margins" (Saunders); bill carmine; legs and feet deeper carmine; 

 ring round the eye scarlet. Length 16 inches; wing nA; tail 4-5 ■; tarsus if; 

 middle toe and claw ii inches. 



The Black-headed Gull breeds in many places in inland localities, often a 

 great distance from the sea — in islands in lakes far removed from habitation, for 

 it is a species easily disturbed and scared away from its breeding places. It does, 

 nevertheless, breed in suitable sites near the sea. Very often it shares "the Grouse 

 moors with the more legitimate tenants." It is particularly fond " of a boggy 

 island, almost inaccessible owing to deep mud and shallow water." 



In March this Gull changes its winter dress for its nuptial plumage with the 

 dark hood, and in the month of April it begins to lay, having constructed a well 

 built nest of sticks, grass and reeds, or such vegetable material as the locality 

 affords. The nest may be placed on the ground ; in trees at varying heights 

 from the ground ; on the sloping roof of a boat shed ; or " on a roundish- shaped 

 boulder close to the shore" (Harvie- Brown) . When on the ground the nests are 

 often placed so close together that it is impossible, without very great care and 

 circumspection, to put the foot down without treading on a nest. Mr. Harvie- 

 Brown and Sir John Orde have recorded that they have found a nest actually 

 built in the water, in a small creek or bay, in the peat, on an island of Loch an 

 Dune, a tidal arm of Loch Maddy. This species breeds often also in association 

 with the Arctic Tern and Common Gull. The naturalists we have just mentioned 

 have also found the eggs of the Black-headed and the Common Gull, in more 

 than one locality, in the same nest. 



The eggs — in size, varying considerably with the age of the bird, about on 

 an average 2r& inches in length by ii in diameter — are three to four in number, 

 more generally three, and are extremely variable in colour. The ground colour 

 varies from "pale bluish- green to greyish-buff and brown, spotted, blotched and 

 streaked in almost every conceivable variety, with surface markings of dark brown, 



