APRIL 85 



grass-grown ledges, where amongst the tufts of sea- 

 pink they form their artless nests. This, and not, as 

 one might suppose, the Common Gull of the bird 

 books, is the one which breeds so generally upon the 

 rugged parts of our coast. The Common Gull, so 

 called, abundant through the winter, now leaves for 

 the north, and nowhere breeds south of the Border. 

 So easily may a trivial name lend itself to error. The 

 gulls are in fact a puzzling family to the beginner, 

 the speckled and spotted dress of the young birds 

 giving place gradually to the adult plumage, which 

 is sometimes not acquired until the third or fourth 

 year. There is, further, the complication of a change 

 from summer to winter plumage. But for the study of 

 these minor differences some time of year must be 

 chosen when the calls in other directions are less 

 pressing than they are in these full-tide days of 

 April. 



THE SUMMER MIGRANTS. 



Little more than a hundred years ago the annual 

 disappearance of our more delicate songsters was so 

 little understood as to be largely shrouded in mystery. 

 Dr. Johnson boldly stated that swallows on the 

 approach of winter, flying above a lake or pond, 

 " conglobulate " into a ball and sink below the 

 surface of the water, remaining quiescent in the mud 



