Wild Birds, Useful and Injurious. 
31 
Mr. L. E. Hope/ gives a very good idea of its usual diet, and I 
am very glad to avail myself of the information contained, for 
I am not si;fliciently hardened to shoot seagulls. The investiga- 
tions extended over a period of thirteen months, and a hundred 
birds were examined. Earthworms proved to be the food most 
frequently taken, with wire-worms, leatherjackets, beetles, may- 
flies, oats, grass, turnips, and other vegetable matter. One bird 
contained thirty slugs,whilst moths and their caterpillars, spiders, 
sandhoppers, cockles, and carrion were observed in others. Fish 
did not form a large proportion of their food, in fact only nine 
birds contained flsh of any description. Complaints had been 
made that the gulls took seed corn, but any loss is confined to 
Fig. 7.— Blackheaded Gull (Larus ricHhundus). ’ 
“ a period of two or three weeks, and occurs only while the 
grain is actually being sown by those farmers who sow broad- 
cast. Those who use the drill do not complain, and it appears 
that, if the grain is covered immediately, little or no damage is 
done, as the bird does not uncover it.” It- is interesting to 
find that, out of the hundred gulls examined, no less than 
thirty-six contained wire-woi-ms or their pai’ent beetles — one 
contained fifty — and fifteen contained leatherjackets. From 
other sources of information it appears that the blackheaded 
gull frequently preys upon daddy longlegs, sometimes, as 
observed by Mr. R. Newstead,® taking them by thousands. 
Mice, winged ants, and earwigs are also captured by seagulls, 
* Carlisle, June, 1907. 
^ Fig. 7 is from Saunders’ Manual (Gurney & Jackson). 
* The Oardeners' Chronicle, January 21, 1906. 
