136 
liARID.E. 
parency, the bird leaves the spot. Whether the coast 
is flat or rocky is immaterial. 
The food of this bird consists, in a wild state, in worms, 
the larvee of coleopterous insects, flsh, Crustacea, and mol¬ 
luscous shell-flsh, but in confinement it will eat bread, grain, 
and almost any sort of meat and cooked vegetables, in place 
of its natural food. 
The breeding places of the Common Gull are so numerous 
that we can only enumerate a few that differ from each other ; 
in fact it breeds equally upon the coast, on rocks over¬ 
hanging the sea, on marshy islands, and on the shores of 
inland lakes. At St. Abb’s Head, a rocky headland of 
Herwickshire, these birds occupy the whole face of the 
cliff. The nest is placed on the ground, and composed 
of sea-weeds, dry grasses, &c., and the eggs are two or 
three in number, in size, shape, and colouring, as repre¬ 
sented in our plate. 
The young birds are mottled with brown and white ; 
their tail has a dark dusky bar near the end, that disappears 
in the second year, becoming first of a lighter colour, and 
then turning entirely white. 
On the continent of Europe this species bears the appella¬ 
tion of Storm Gull, in consequence of its propensity of 
leaving the sea-shores on the approach of stormy weather. 
It is a beautiful sight to observe a party of these gulls 
circle about high in the air, on a clear day in autumn ; a 
pleasure that we have enjoyed frequently in the month 
of September, when our attention has been attracted by the 
appearance of a perfect circle in the air, composed of these 
sea birds, wheeling round and round ; such an e.\diibition 
we have always observed to precede accounts of stormy 
weather at sea. At these times it is utterlv impossible to 
reach any of the birds with a gun-shot, as they fly too 
