LARID. 593 
dead from starvation, one even in Leicestershire, 
near a place called Earl Shilton, said to be the very 
centre of England.* 
On the south coast of Devon, off Teignmouth and 
Exmouth, the Kittiwakes appear to me at times to 
exceed any of the other Gulls in number: they ap- 
pear in these great numbers generally about Novem- 
ber, when the sprats are about, and I have often 
on a calm day rested in my boat, watching them 
all around me: they do not appear to show the 
slightest fear, but come close round the boat—so 
close that on one occasion a boy who was with me 
struck at them several times with the paddles, and 
they were quite within his reach. Sometimes they 
pay rather dearly for their boldness, as their human 
persecutors often attack them on such occasions, 
when it is perfectly impossible to pick out a clear 
shot, more than one almost always falling to a shot, 
to say nothing of how many go off wounded. More- 
over, as the Kittiwakes always come to look at a 
dead or wounded companion, they afford certain op- 
portunities for slaughter. When these gatherings 
take place the Kittiwakes seem to be almost in- 
numerable. I have just quoted a description of the 
Blackheaded Gulls, comparing their numbers on 
their breeding ground to the flakes of snow falling 
upon two acres of land during a heavy snow storm: 
* § Zoologist’ for 1868 (Second Series, p. 1213). 
383 
