THE BROWN-HEADED GULL 309 



watching for the first flies that hover over and dimple 

 the silvery plains, for the puit is, like most migrants, an 

 " insect " feeder. 



And at this season, when the hurricanes are raising the 

 dust in clouds, and the foul grass smoulders and smokes 

 into the blue, and the patient horses pile the hard clods 

 on the broad lowland, the puits follow the strong plough, 

 in company with starlings and rooks, feeding upon the in- 

 sects, and worms, and snails turned to the surface. And 

 a picturesque sight it is to see the gleaming puits and 

 sable rooks following, with the crested lapwings and rest- 

 less starlings, against the sandy dunes, where the marram 

 shivers in the cold nor'-easter. 



And these are the " gulls " that follow the plough — for 

 not another kind have I seen following the ploughman. 

 At this season, too, you may see them on marshes bright 

 with water, feeding in a large flock with peewits, and then 

 you know the peewit is the sharper-witted ; he is more alert, 

 takes alarm first, and flies straight up in the air, disappear- 

 ing in the blue, whilst the hungry puit merely flies across 

 into a neighbouring marsh. 



Far a-marsh they go from " their broad " in their jour- 

 neys for food, and at eventide you may see them flying 

 back across the chequered landscape — a beautiful vision of 

 white flitting bodies against the dark April blue — when the 

 night-jar is filling his crop with food to carry to the young 

 ones at home. 



I have watched him soon after dawn hawk for a full hour 

 — sans intervals — over a reed-bed, darting down quickly, 

 rising gracefully in the air, turning this way and that, 

 behaving like a tern or night-jar ; in fact, I have known 

 him mistaken for both these birds in a dim light. And 

 when the young can fly and shout, away go the colony 

 to the wet sea -beaches, and to the mud -flats, to feed 

 on worms and sandhoppers, and other insects ; and for a 

 short period you may hear their voices in July by the ever- 



