110 BIRDS OF THE COUNTRYSIDE 



It is a mistake to suppose that we are only 

 honoured with one species of gull, and in bad weather 

 I have noticed no fewer than four within a quarter 

 of a mile of my house — black-headed, common, herring 

 and lesser black-backed, though never more than 

 about a dozen of the last species all told. But in 

 1919 I noticed two immature brown herring gulls on 

 the flats among a company of about a hundred 

 blackheads on a very warm and humid day in 

 December, so that other species of gull are also 

 founding a tradition of wintering in London, one, 

 too, of determination when young birds help to make 

 it. This assembly was a remarkable one in other 

 ways, for it included four crows, a pair of water-hens, 

 a small flock of starlings, a pair of wood-pigeons, 

 and a dabchick. I had never seen a dabchick on 

 the river before, and its movements were as peculiar 

 as its presence. It was swimming downstream with 

 great speed, diving every minute or so to increase it. 

 Then, when it caught sight and ear of this vociferous 

 crowd, it made straight for them, and at the edge 

 of the water had a tremendous bath, beating up a 

 mist of water with its violently agitated wings. 

 Having thus passed the time of day with the others, 

 it set off again into the unknown, as mysterious to 

 me in its coming as its going. 



It is, of course, practically impossible to distinguish 

 the common from the black-headed gull' during the 

 winter, but I noticed that the nuptial black or rather 

 dark chocolate-brown hood of the blackheads was 

 assumed among many of the latter (doubtless the 

 older birds) as early in 1918 as February 1st, a day 

 of implacable snow, and January 7th in 1919. By 

 the middle of March you could be sure that the few 

 capless gulls of the size of the blackheads were of 

 the " common " species, as silly a misnomer as that 



1 There is, however, a difference. The primaries of the 

 " common " gull are longer, with white " mirrors " near the ends ; 

 its build is squarer, and its bill is without the reds or orange of the 

 blackheads. See T. A. Coward's precise and brilliant manual 

 for further distinctions. The birds are equal in size. 



