148 Short Communications : — 



The ice did split with a thunder-fit, 

 The helmsman steer'd us through. 



" And a good south wind sprang up behind, 

 The albatross did follow ; 

 And every day, for food or play, 

 Came to the mariner's hollo." 



Had this albatross been a sea-gull, the above might have 

 been fact as well as fancy. During the heavy gale which 

 blew from the eastward in the end of January, 1831, I 

 crossed from the coast of Flanders to Dover. About mid- 

 channel, three gulls made their appearance, and kept con- 

 stantly with us till we reached the roads. One of the pas- 

 sengers wished to shoot at them ; but the captain of the 

 packet objected, and said " they wanted to be fed, and came 

 on purpose." Accordingly, much to the annoyance of his 

 companions, we sent one of the ship-boys to the cook for 

 some meat, and, throwing portions of the fat to the birds, 

 were much pleased to see that every morsel was taken, some- 

 times while passing through the air, and sometimes on the 

 surface of the water, very near to the paddle-wheels of the 

 steamer. Neither the noise of the engine, nor the rushing of 

 the water, nor the presence of the people on board, alarmed 

 the birds; but they kept pace with our progress, and con- 

 stantly flew within a few feet of the vessel, till a snow squall 

 came on, and, it blowing tremendously hard, we parted com- 

 pany nearly under the land. 



In the Isle of Man the gull is looked on as sacred ; and 

 there used to be, so late as 1820, when I remember an in- 

 stance of the kind, a fine of 105. levied on all who killed 

 one. This veneration for the bird arose from self-interest ; 

 for, as herrings are the staple commodity of the island, the 

 sea-gulls, who are the pilots of the herring fleet, are properly 

 protected. The gulls invariably hover over a shoal of her- 

 rings, and so direct the fishermen where to cast their nets. 

 But I must add no more, lest your readers may think I in- 

 tend to gull them. — W. B. Clarke. East Bergholt, Suffolk, 

 March 5. 1831. 



Sandpipers breed about Clitheroe, Lancashire. — Sandpipers 

 breed with us ; and I this year started an old one from her 

 nest, at the root of a fir tree. She screamed out, and rolled 

 about in such a manner, and seemed so completely disabled, 

 that, although perfectly aware that her intention was to allure 

 me from her nest, I could not resist my inclination to pursue 

 her, and, in consequence, I had great difficulty in finding the 

 nest again. It was built of a few dried leaves of the Wey- 

 mouth pine (Pinus Strobus L.) > and contained three young 



