THI CAMNIER-]

hurryimg up, till the air is thick with them. Many of these have been here hefore, but a large proportion arc young birds, known by their differing plumage, the

grey thickly streaked and mottled with brown, to be

exchanged for the pure delicate hght grev of adult gullhood when a vear old. These seem just as cager as their seniors, as 1t they had been told what to expect. One would like to hear, in bird talk, a deseription of these “lish dinners.”

The breeding places of the birds arc interesting sights about the middle of June. The old birds are then com- paratively tame. Some nests contaim cges. Many of the chicks arc too young to crawl out of the way, while others are stronz cnough to skulk, ke little puft-balls, under o branch ol heather or dricd bracken. The maccessible chffs of the coast are by no means alone chosen as breed- g grounds: often vast colonies occupy the Aflattest of flat places, like Pilling Moss, not

GULLS FLYING (4).

ANONGST 17/17

SIcA BIRD.S.

473

far from Fleetwood, where the little black-hcaded gull makes his home in countless thousands.

RISING FROM THE STRIKE (3).

The place is an

uncultivated shaking

Y- Y fen ill'ld when you N s 2 stand still; water rIses T NN round your feet. The

P o nests extend | - g OVer many an

acre. At first the old birds arc rather shy; but let a gun be hred, and the air 1s at once [illed with the in- dignant parents, who whirl round us, scream at us, and do all they know except at- tack us. The nest 1s - usually placed in the lee of a bit of weed or heather. T'he eggs vary in

Vol iv, 61,