THE BLACK-HEADED GULL. 579 



county of Stafford, distant at least thirty miles from the 

 sea. He says that when the young birds had attained 

 their full size, it was the custom to drive them from the 

 island into nets disposed along the shore of the lake. 

 The captured birds were fattened on meat and garbage, 

 and sold for about fourpence or fivepence each (a goodly 

 price in those days, 1676). The average number captured 

 every year was 1200, returning to the proprietor an 

 income of about £15. In a modern work, "The Cata- 

 logue of Norfolk and Suffolk Birds," it is stated that 

 precisely the same sum is paid for the privilege of col- 

 lecting the eggs from Scoulton Mere, in Norfolk. Towards 

 the end of July, when the young are fully fledged, all the 

 birds, old and young, repair to the sea, and scatter them- 

 selves in small flocks to all parts of the coast, preferring 

 a low sandy shore, or the mouth of a tidal river, as the 

 Thames and the Clyde, where they are of common occurrence. 

 They also accompany shoals of herrings and other small fish, 

 often congregating with other species in countless numbers. 

 Before winter the distinctive character afforded by the 

 brown plumage of the head and neck has entirely dis- 

 appeared. These parts are now of a pure white, and the 

 red legs afford the best distinguishing feature. Persons 

 residing on the coast, who are familiarly acquainted with 

 the habits of the bird, but are unaware of the periodical 

 change in its colour, consider the two forms of the bird 

 as distinct species. Thus I have received from a marsh 

 on the coast of Norfolk the eggs of the " Black- headed 

 Gull,^' and have had the same bird pointed out to me in 

 winter as the " Eed-legged Pigeon-Mow" (Mew).* One 

 flock of about thirty thus pointed out to me presented a 

 very pretty sight. They had detected either a shoal of 

 small fishes, or a collection of dead animal matter floating 

 among the breakers, and were feeding with singular ac- 



* " Bewick's figure of the Red-legged Gull is from a bird of this 

 species in the plumage of the first winter."— Yarrell. 

 PP 2 



