WHITE SEA-BIRDS. 279 



Eggs.^3, olive -brown or greenish-buff, spotted 

 and blotched with brown and gray^ 2 '2 5 x 1*5 inches 

 (plate 136). 



Nest. — Of grass, seaweed, and stalks of weeds 

 growing near, placed on the ground. 



The Common Gull breeds largely in Scotland, both 

 on the coasts and on inland lochs, to a small extent 

 in Ireland, and not at all in England, where, however, 

 it is common enough out of the breeding season. It 

 is gregarious, and the nests, formed of seaweed or 

 dry herbage, are placed on ledges on cliffs, or on some 

 lower rock. The bird swims buoyantly, and its food 

 is taken on sand-bank or mud-flat, snatched up with 

 the bill from the surface of the water as it dips in 

 flight, or gathered in inland fields as it follows in the 

 furrows behind the plough. 



HERKING GULL— 23 inches ; bill yellow ; legs and feet 



flesh-colour ; very similar in the gray and white parts to 



the Common Gull, but much larger. 

 KITTIWAKE— 15i inches. In the gray and white parts 



similar to the Common Gull, but bill greenish-yellow, 



and legs black. 

 LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL— 22 inches ; bill yellow, 



touched with red at the bend ; legs and feet yellow ; 



upper parts slaty -black ; remainder white. 

 BLACK-HEADED GULL— 16 inche.s ; head blackish-browu 



all over ; bill, legs, and feet red. 



BLACK -HEADED GULL. — 1« inches. Upper 

 parts and wings pearl-gray, but longest flight-feathers 

 white, edged and tipped with black ; entire head 

 blackish-brown ; neck and under parts, as well as rump 

 and tail, white ; bill, legs, and feet red. Winter : 



