136 BLACK-HEADED G I'LL.
Tînt hen I do my rhyme forsake:
S h o u l d p o e t s v i e w t h e s c e n e,
S o m e b e t t o r v e r s e t * t h e y i m i v m a k e
A b o u t t h e ( l u l l s a t y o n d e r l u k e.
A n d fields a n d f o r e s t s g r e e n . WILLIAM KOBSON.
The Black-headed Gull occasionally visits Oxfordshire, singly, or in
parties of three or four. In Cornwall, they arc not uncommon at
Pcnryn river nearly all seasons of the year, mostly, however, in the
winter. In Devonshire the same. In Surrey, the species has occurred
at Oodalming. In Northumberland, at Prcstwick Carr, near Newcastle.
In Scotland, there arc large colonies on the islets in Loch Lomond,
the Loch of lîelivat, and several other of the Lochs of Sutherhuidshire:
plentiful also in Caithness, and in Last Lothian very abundant.
The same in the Hebrides. In Orkney some breed about the ^Loch
of Stcnncss, in Sanday, and other localities there.
In Ireland, it is also a constant resident.
I n Wales, also, in Caermarthenshire and Glamorganshire, etc.,
especially about the mouths of rivers.
In spring and summer these birds dwell by marshes, rivers, lakes,
and ponds, and for the remainder of the year resort to the sea-shore
and the mouths of the larger rivers.
They arrive at their summer quarters generally in the month of
March, but some about the middle or latter end of February, and
leave again the end of July or beginning of August. Many must
leave the country in the autumn, and return again in the spring, the
numbers of those seen in the latter season and the summer being so
very great.
These birds are easily kept in confinement in suitable places, such
as walled gardens, but continue shy and timid. T. E. Wilkinson, Esq.,
of Walsham Hall, has written me word of his having kept one of
them alive and well for nearly a year, and it was at last killed by a
dog, having unfortunately wandered out of its bounds.
'I In y may be seen at times perched on low bushes, the top of a
boat-house, or the upright stump of a tree, in the places where they
build.
The young were formerly considered good eating, and some proprietors
used to make from fifty to eighty pounds a year by their
sale.
Their flight is easy, noiseless, and buoyant, and they sometimes
hover for a short time over their prey, and then dash on it into the
water. The)- do not usually resort to swimming. On the land they
run about in a light and graceful manner.
BLACK-HEADED GI L I,. L J 7
They frequently hunt for insects in the twilight, and have been
seen so late as between nine and ten o'clock at night, and heard
returning from their forage at still later hours. In winter they
become very shy.
They feed on small fish and insects—cockchaffers, May-flics, beetles,
and moths; as also on slugs, worms, shrimps, butts, and other C r u s t a c e a,
anil, if need be, on water-plants. The first-named, if of the freshwater
kinds, they hawk for at a height of ten or twelve feet in the
air, and on descrying the object, they lower their course, and, skimming
the surface, pick it up. They almost always follow the course
of the stream, and in winter advance up rivers in the morning, going
downwards again towards night. In the spring months they resort to
ploughed lands, following the plough In quest of worms and insects;
and in summer repair to water. ' During the heat of the day, many
of the in disperse up and down throughout the corn, pasture, and
fallow fields, in search of food. These they beat with great diligence,
traversing them again and again, at a height of about ten feet as
before. When any suitable object meets their eve, they immediately
round to, alight on the ground, and generally keeping their wings
extended upwards, seize it.' The ghost-moth is a favourite object of
pursuit on the still summer evenings, when it hovers over the grass
or swarms about trees.
' I t is indeed a most, amusing and interesting sight to witness the
elegant evolutions of these beautiful birds when in pursuit of these
large moths, oftentimes brushing the surface of the ground with their
downy breasts, and generally capturing with facility the moth as it
rlbvefS at a distance of from one to two feet from the earth. Occasionally,
however, the bird misses its aim, and the moth, by the rapid
motion of the Gull, is struck to the ground. The bird, however,
nothing dismayed, hovers for a few seconds over the retreat of its
fallen prey, and if it perceives it em bedded in the grass, pounces upon
it, or if disappointed flics off in search of another prize.' May-flics
also they course after over the streams almost like Swallows.
The same writer from whom 1 have made the above quotation. .Mr.
Archibald Jerdon, adds, in the 'Zoologist,' page 246, ' I have repeatedly
seen numbers of them flying about long alter sunset, and lately I have
remarked that they come abroad in t he evening apparently for the
purpose of catching insects, which they do on the wing, after the
manner of the Swallow tribe. On the ¡¿2nd. of this month, I watched
the proceedings of a number of these birds by the banks of the Jed,
between nine a n d ten o'clock, t h e r e was a small grove of trees al a
short distance lrom the river, to which rome of them retorted, flying