130 Among the Birds in NortJicrn Shires. 



passed off as Plovers' eggs, but the fraud we should 

 say would never be successful with anyone acquainted 

 with the latter delicacy. The scene at the nests 

 when the place is invaded by man is a very charm- 

 ing one, the Gulls rising in clouds into the air and 

 wheeling about in bewildering confusion, uttering 

 their noisy cries of remonstrance. Even more ani- 

 mated does the scene become when the young are 

 hatched, for then the old birds show much greater 

 solicitude. An inland gullery always seems to strike 

 us as a trifle incongruous, for we are always apt to 

 associate a Gull with the sea; yet here, miles away 

 from the salt water, often surrounded by rural scenes, 

 are Gulls in thousands as happy and contented as 

 though they had never been near a coast in their 

 lives. When the young are able to fly, however, the 

 instinct of the sea apparently returns to them, and 

 back they go to the salt water to wander far and 

 wide, and lead a life of errantry until love brings 

 them inland again in the following spring. 



