liLACK-riEA DED GULL. 
LARUS RIDIBUNDUS. 
I HAVE met with the Black-headed Gull all along the eastern coast-line from Caithness to Sussex, as well as 
off most counties bordering the sea-shore. This species does not appear to have perceptibly diminished 
in numbers, though many of their haunts of late years have been encroached on by innovations, such ^ as 
drainage or railroads. Usually nesting on preserved grounds, this Gull does not suffer from the persecution 
which birds breeding along the sea-coast are exposed to, and when driren from their nesting-places by the 
reclaiming of swamps and marshes for farming-purposes they usually find little difficulty in selecting suitable 
quarters at no great distance. 
This species is w ithout doubt somewhat nocturnal in its habits ; while staying at the small village at Canty 
Bay, opposite the Bass Bock in the Firth of Forth, in the autumn of 1874, I often noticed these birds collecGng 
towards evening along the sands just above high-water mark, and on making further investigations ascertained 
that they w^ere engaged in capturing the sand-hoppers, minute marine insects somewliat resembling small 
shrimps, that swarm in thousands under tlie dead seaweed thrown up by the tide and lying in heaps along the 
shore. The humming noise that these tiny creatures emit when disturbed is far louder than would be supposed, 
and resounds on all sides if the shelter under which they are concealed is in any manner interfered with. AY bile 
in quest of specimens of the Black-headed Gull in its various stages of plumage, I took the marks one evening 
where a party of these birds generally alighted to feed, and approaching after dark when they Averc busily 
occupied, succeeded in knocking over half a dozen Avith the two barrels of a 12-bore breach-loader. The slain, 
AA'hen picked up, proved to he mostly juveniles, though there happened to be one or tAvo almost adults ; all, 
hoAvever, were acceptable as specimens exhibiting the different stages through which they pass. These Gulls 
may also be seen towards dusk about the Broads in the east of Norfolk, flying backwards and forwards across 
the marshes and darting doAvn at the insects hovering round the brambles on the banks, and the reeds and 
rushes along the dykes. The light colouring of the ghost moth is exceedingly conspicuous at such times, and 
I frequently remarked that they were greedily snapped up by the Gull ; probably other insects are also captured 
in localities where these moths are not to he obtained. 
Very large colonies of these birds are occasionally found breeding in company ; at Loch Doula near Lairg 
in Sutherland, three islands in the loch A\mre almost covered with nests at the time of my first visit in June 
18G8. There w'ei’e also some hundreds of nests on a waving bog to the south of the loch, to Avhich it Avas almost 
impossible to make one’s way, so scanty was tbe covering of soil that had formed above the decomposing mass of 
rotten reeds and mud on which the Gulls had placed their cradles. A few Common Gulls were also breeding 
near at hand, their nests being situated here and there in the long heather round the edge of the loch, but not 
intermixed with those of this species. 
On my first inspection of this exceedingly interesting loch, I discovered there Avas no boat on the AA^ater ; 
this deficiency, however, was easily remedied, as on returning a few days later one of my portable india-rubber 
