The Black-headed Gull is an inland breeding species, and resorts to marshes, wet moors, and meres, at varying distances from the sea. Sometimes these breeding-places are in fairly well-timbered districts, and often surrounded by trees and bushes. This Gull, too, is remarkably gregarious during the breeding season, and some of its colonies are very extensive, consisting of many thousands of pairs. The “gulleries” are visited for nesting purposes in March or April, and as the birds return to the same spots year after year, they probably pair for life. Nesting begins in April. Most of the nests are made upon the ground in rush tufts, in hassocks of coarse grass and sedge, amongst reeds in shallow water, on masses of the previous year’s decayed aquatic vegetation, or on the flat, spongy, moss-covered ground. Odd nests are occasionally made in the trees and bushes, or even on boat-houses. Many of the nests can only be described as mere rounded hollows in the cushions of grass or sedge; the more elaborate structures are usually in the wettest situations, and these latter are often added to as incubation advances, either to replace the wear and tear from the incessant wash of the water, or to provide a sufficiently large platform on which the young may rest. The nests are made of bits of reed and rush, coarse grass, flags, and scraps of moss, lined with finer materials of similar description. The eggs of this Gull are usually three in number, sometimes four. They are subject to much variation, ranging from rich brown to pale bluish-green in ground colour, spotted, blotched, blurred, and streaked with several shades of brown and gray. Large numbers of these eggs are gathered for culinary purposes, the crop being systematically taken, and the birds always allowed eventually to sit upon their final clutch. Many of these eggs are passed off for those of the Peewit by unscrupulous dealers, notably in Leadenhall market. Few scenes in the bird world are prettier than a colony of Black-headed Gulls. When disturbed at their nests the birds rise in fluttering crowds, drifting noisily to and fro, anxious for the safety of their eggs or helpless young. As is the invariable rule with birds that continue to replace their taken eggs, but one brood is reared in the season. THE SKUAS.