534 AGJSNDA FOR CONTRIBUTORS, &C. 



on the coast, they regularly breed in abundance. I was much pleased 

 last spring on finding a few eggs on a piece of salterns, (waste land 

 which the tide occasionally flows over,) a short distance from where I 

 reside, and on visiting the spot about a week after, I found that a large 

 company of them had taken up their abode there. I procured a few 

 more eggs, for specimens, and left the rest untouched, promising my- 

 self much amusement in watching the progress of the young, but was 

 disappointed by some fishermen taking all the eggs, which was done 

 several times before the birds would leave, which, however, they were 

 at last obliged to do, and repaired to another spot not far distant, where, 

 I am sorry to say, they were again plundered; and although they were 

 indefatigable in laying, I do not think one egg ever came to maturity. 



They are very social birds, always keeping and breeding together in 

 large flocks, and, when undisturbed, will resort to the same place many 

 years. They make a simple nest ; a few bits of sea-weed or rejecta- 

 menta suffice ; and lay three (I have never found more) eggs, spotted, 

 more or less, with black ; the ground colour varies exceedingly, some 

 being of a sea-green, and some a dark brown, with every intermediate 

 shade. The young of the year are brown on the back and breast; after 

 they moult, the wing coverts and other feathers are edged with brown. 

 In the spring they attain their perfect plumage, and have then a beau- 

 tiful roseate tinge on the neck and breast. As the summer advances, 

 they, in some degree, lose this tint, as well as the colour of the head, 

 which in June becomes a mouse-coloured brown ; in July they begin 

 to moult, and are not again in good feather till October. In the winter 

 they intermix with the common gulls (Larus canus), and with them 

 resort to the uplands, and follow the ploughs in search of worms. 



Southchurch, Essex, Oct. 15, 1833. 



AGENDA FOR OUR CONTRIBUTORS, AND FOR THE ZOOLO- 

 GICAL SOCIETY. 



BY N. N. 



BUT few minds, I will hope, are so constituted as to feel pleasure in 

 finding fault : for myself, I can truly say, that nothing is more unplea- 

 sant, although I am just going to do this very thing. I cannot but suppose 

 that you would wish your publication to be useful as well as attractive 

 and entertaining ; yet must lament that it is not so, in the degree that 

 it might be. Little information is acquired by being told how a cock- 



