430 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
reality of a chocolate-brown colour. It is well, too, to 
remember that this characteristic coloration is only present 
in the spring, and that in the winter-plumage the head, 
with the exception of some grey feathers in front of 
the eye, on the croA^Ti, and behind the ear-coverts, becomes 
white. 
The undoubted increase in the numbers of the Black- 
headed Gull makes one wonder whether these birds will 
continue to find a sufficiency of their natural food, or whether 
they will in the near future adopt bad habits. At present 
they receive the benefit locally of the Wild Birds Protection 
Act, and the question if this protection is wise or other- 
wise has been dealt with in a Report on the food of the 
Black-headed Gull drawn up for the Cumberland County 
Council in 1907 by Messrs. D. Losh Thorpe and L. E. Hope. 
It is to be regretted that this Report should have concluded 
by the recommendation to the authorities to relax, for a 
term of years, the protection given to the species. It would 
seem that in arriving at this conclusion much evidence was 
adduced which can only be regarded as problematical ; the 
recommendation would therefore appear to be, at least, 
premature.* 
The question has also been dealt with by Mr. T. G. 
Laidiaw, who sums up his opinion in the following words : 
" I consider it on the whole to be an extremely useful as 
well as an extremely beautiful bird."! 
The Black-headed Gull devours large numbers of grubs, 
worms and caterpillars, and also takes cockchafers and 
moths on the wing. Mr. R. Service writes that this habit 
was first noticed in 1868, and that the insects are taken as 
food for the young. { Richard Bell of Castle O'er states that 
he has known the Black-headed Gull to take salmon-smolts 
and rats.§ It is recorded that in February, 1900, a pair of 
* BriL Birds (Mag.), Vol. I., pp. 191, 231, 259, 293. 
t Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist., 1908, p. 141. 
X Zoologist, 1902, p. 216. 
§ My Strange PeL% pp. 202-204. 
