is more brown than black; and again, if you look for
this bird during your summer holidays, you will see no dark hood on his
head. You might, though, know him then by the red legs and bill, and the
white front-edging to his lovely pearly-grey wings.

Look at him in January, however, and you see dark feathers beginning to
appear on his head. The fact is, this dark hood is the bird's wedding
dress. It comes only when the nesting season draws near. Then he leaves
the fields, parks, and rivers, to fly away to the nesting-place.

These Gulls love to nest in colonies--that is, near one another. Among
rushes and reeds, and rough grass growing in deep wet mud, they feel
that their nests are safe. There they lay three eggs. The chicks, almost
as soon as they leave the eggs, can run about. If there is no dry land
near the nest, these youngsters tumble in the water and swim without
bothering about swimming lessons.

In summer they are ready to fly with their parents round the coast, and
to the muddy mouths of large rivers, where they feed. Flocks of them are
also seen out in the open sea, feeding on the shoals of small fish. They
also follow steamers, for the sake of any scraps thrown overboard, and
they crowd round the fishing boats when they are being unloaded. You
see, they are _scavengers_, and so are to be found wherever there are
waste scraps of food.

Perhaps you have noticed that Gulls float high in the sea, like so many
corks. They can leave the water easily, and take to flight; but they
_cannot_ dive. The Gull's dinner-table is the whole coast. His eyes are
keen enough, as you will know if you have watched him swoop down on a
piece of bread in mid-air, and catch it neatly in his beak.

The flight of this Gull is beautiful, graceful, and easy. Sometimes he
wheels up and up into the blue sky, almost without moving a wing. He can
also glide for a great while, balancing his body against the wind, and
turning his head from side to side on the look-out for food. Those long,
pointed wings of his make him one of Nature's most perfect
flying-machines. His wild, laughing cry has given him the nickname of
Laughing Gull.

In the fields and along the banks of our big rivers you may see the
Common Gull with numbers of his black-headed cousins. His beak and legs
and webbed feet are greenish yellow, and this is quite enough to
distinguish the two birds. Their habits are much the same. Both skim
over the sea, or the coast, looking