BIRDS OF BROADLAND AND STREAMSIDE. 207 



sea-fowl, I have on a good many occasions met 

 with sohtary pairs breeding on small tarns high 

 up amongst the hills of the Penine Range, where 

 they were forty or fifty miles away from the sea. 

 Probably the finest colony to be met with in 

 this country is located at Scoulton Mere, in 

 Norfolk, where the species has bred season after 

 season for over three hundred years in unbroken 

 succession, in spite of the discouraging fact that 

 from ten to twenty thousand of their eggs are 

 collected every spring and sold for culinary 

 purposes. Directly the birds have re-established 

 themselves in their ancient haunt the fact be- 

 comes known to the inhabitants of the country 

 for miles around as they quickly resume their 

 beneficial avocation of industriously following 

 every working plough in search of grubs, 



I have rather good reason to remember the 

 three illustrations of a black-headed gull appear- 

 ing on the next page, because their acquisition 

 cost me over an hour and a half's waiting with 

 my bare knees on a partially submerged piece of 

 board, which grew very hard and cold during the 

 latter part of my vigil. 



My favourite of favourites amongst the birds 

 of Broad] and is the sweetly pretty bearded tit, or 

 reed pheasant. During the last seven or eight 

 years it has been my pleasant fortune to study 

 the species at various times and with increasing 



