THE BLACK-HEADED GULL, 
333 
in the counties of Roscommon and Leitrim, when flying after 
moths (perhaps the ghost-moth, Hepialus famuli) above the 
ripe but unmown meadows, in flocks generally of about a dozen 
birds. My informant is not aware of any breeding-place being 
near. - ^ “ The Rev. J. Dubourdieu is of opinion that the moths of 
the cut -worm (from his description, Phal&na JmmuU) have dimi- 
nished, as he sees the gulls in the meadow before his house [in 
the county Down] pursuing like swallows, and catching them 
even until eleven o' clock at night. Erom a considerable distance 
he can hear the snap of the gull when it seizes one. At this 
period we may see the moths, the nights being so light as to 
appear twilight throughout." f 
Everywhere over Ireland that I have been— -in the north, east, 
west, and south — this gull was met with, and along the western 
coast as numerously as elsewhere. One of the most favourite 
localities I know is the inner extremity of Dundalk Bay : I have 
never crossed the bridge northward of the town without seeing 
numbers. Certainly as many, if not more, than are bred in the 
island remain during the winter on the sea-coast, and in the most 
northern estuaries. 
Sir William Jardine remarks, that “ the black-headed gull is 
at all times to be met with on the coast in the south of Scotland 
during winter, but in no proportion whatever to the large num- 
bers that annually resort inland to breed" (‘Brit. Birds/ vol. iv. 
p. 295). The marshy extremity of a mountain tarn covering a 
few acres on a moor, about twelve miles inland from Ballantrae, 
in Ayrshire, in occupation of a friend, is annually tenanted by a 
large colony of these birds, which look extremely beautiful in 
the midst of the wild heath ; but so easy of access are their nests, 
that they are sadly pillaged of their eggs, and, as the practice of 
robbing them is on the increase, the poor gulls will, doubtless, 
be eventually banished from the district they so much adorn. On 
the 29th of September, 1842, I observed great numbers of these 
* Mr. W. R. Wilde. 
t Journal of John Templeton, June 29, 1808. 
