Oil Heaths and Marshes. i 29 



dant in the fields; we remember, on one occasion, 

 to have seen a ploughed field black and white with 

 Rooks and Gulls, many of which when disturbed 

 flew up from the furrows into the nearest trees; and 

 very curious the white Gulls looked — birds that we 

 associate with the water so closely — as they sat in 

 the branches side by side with cawing Rooks. Early 

 in the year, and before the birds leave the coast, 

 the sooty-brown hood characteristic of the breeding 

 season and of both sexes begins to be assumed. In 

 Devonshire this takes place nearly a month earlier 

 than in the north. In March they congregate at the 

 old familiar stations which have been in use from 

 time immemorial, and nest-building commences 

 almost at once. The nests are ready for eggs by 

 the first or second week in April. These are gene- 

 rally made upon the spongy ground of the marshy 

 islands or on the marshes themselves, and in many 

 cases are little more than hollows lined with a little 

 dry grass. Other nests are bulkier, and these, we 

 have often remarked, are nearest to the water, or 

 even in the shallow pools. The three eggs are 

 subject to much variation, but the ordinary type is 

 brown or olive-green in ground colour, spotted and 

 blotched with darker brown and gray. In many 

 localities the eggs of the first laying are gathered by 

 the tenant or proprietor of the gullery, as they are 

 sold in vast numbers for food. Many, we know, are 



( M GIS ) I 



