The Black-headed Gull 



London, where they are extremely tame and show great 

 agility in catching bread and other morsels of food thrown 

 to them by pedestrians. The bird is practically omnivorous. 

 When inland it follows the plough and feeds largely on 

 worms and beetle grubs which are thus laid bare; but on 

 the seashore, fish, Crustacea, marine insects, and garbage are 

 greedily devoured. 



The nests are placed in a very wet and boggy place, 

 surrounded, if possible, by water, but small ponds or tarns 

 in marshy land are chosen in preference to large sheets of 

 water. The nest is a large untidy heap of weeds and 

 sticks. Four eggs, which are greenish, spotted and blotched 

 with various shades of brown, form the usual clutch. The 

 young hatch after about three weeks' incubation, and are 

 covered with pale brown down mottled with black. They 

 leave the nest when two or three days old, but for a week 

 or ten days at least are entirely dependent on their parents 

 for food ; after that, however, though still fed by their 

 parents, they pick up a good deal for themselves. They fly 

 when about six weeks old. This gull is extremely noisy at 

 all times, but when the nesting-ground is approached the 

 babel of harsh screams is deafening. Although usually 

 settling on the ground, this bird can perch with ease, and 

 does so not infrequently when at its breeding haunts. 



The sexes are alike, and in winter have the back pearl 

 grey, wing feathers white with dark margins to the inner 

 webs, head white with two indistinct dark crescents connect- 

 ing the eyes and ears respectively, rest of the plumage white. 

 Bill and legs white. In summer the head, with the excep- 

 tion of a narrow white circle over the eye, is dark brown. 



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