The Black-Headed Gull — Larus Ridibundus, Linnæus
The Black-headed Gull is an extremely abundant species throughout the United Kingdom at all times of the year. In summer it resorts to various inland marshes and bogs, where it nests in immense colonies, some of which have been in use for centuries. In autumn and winter it is found all along the coast and up tidal rivers, a great many coming to London, where they are extremely tame and show great agility in catching bread and other morsels of food thrown to them by pedestrians. The bird is practically omnivorous. When inland it follows the plough and feeds largely on worms and beetle grubs which are thus laid bare; but on the sea-shore, fish, crustacea, marine insects, and garbage are greedily devoured.
The nests are placed in a very wet and boggy place, surrounded, if possible, by water, but small ponds or tarns in marshy land are chosen in preference to large sheets of water. The nest is a large untidy heap of weeds and sticks. Four eggs, which are greenish, spotted and blotched with various shades of brown, form the usual clutch. The young hatch after about three weeks’ incubation, and are covered with pale brown down mottled with black. They leave the nest when two or three days old, but for a week or ten days at least are entirely dependent on their parents for food; after that, however, though still fed by their parents, they pick up a good deal for themselves. They fly when about six weeks old. This gull is extremely noisy at all times, but when the nesting-ground is approached the babel of harsh screams is deafening. Although usually settling on the ground, this bird can perch with ease, and does so not infrequently when at its breeding haunts.
The sexes are alike, and in winter have the back pearl grey, wing feathers white with dark margins to the inner webs, head white with two indistinct dark crescents connecting the eyes and ears respectively, rest of the plumage white. Bill and legs white. In summer the head, with the exception of a narrow white circle over the eye, is dark brown. Bill and legs much darker than in summer. The young in their first plumage are mottled with pale brown, but soon become like the adult except for a black bar on the tail and pale brown wing coverts. The brown head is often only partially assumed in their first summer. Length 16 in.; wing 12 in.