AVES — LARID^. 205 



"In October these birds congregate in vast numbers in their breeding 

 places, which are marshes covered with some aquatic plant, usually the 

 loose growingy>/;/(f^. These reeds are much bent and broken down by 

 Gulls, and are used as material for their nests, which are placed on the 

 water close together. The female lays four oblong eggs, large for the 

 bird, obtusely pointed, of a pale clay colour, thickly spotted at the large 

 end with dull black. 



"Every morning, at break of day, the Gulls rise up from their nests and 

 hover over the marsh, uttering loud cries and producing a noise that may 

 be heard distinctly two or three miles away. The eggs are excellent 

 eating, resembling those of the Plover in delicacy of flavour, as well as in 

 the lustrous pearl colour which the white assumes when boiled. From 

 the circumstances of such large numbers of Gulls laying their eggs near 

 together, it is a very easy task to get them ; so that when the plains adja- 

 cent to their favourite spots become settled, they have but little chance of 

 rearing their young, as the boys in the neighbourhood ride in and gather 

 them every morning. The Gulls, however, are so tenacious of their 

 breeding-places that they continue to resort to them every summer to lay, 

 and only abandon them after several years' persecution, or, as often hap- 

 pens, on the marsh drying up. But notwithstanding such quantities of 

 their eggs are taken every year, the Gulls do not seem to diminish in 

 numbers. The abundance of their food in the settled districts favours 

 them greatly in their 'struggle for existence.' 



"The young birds are of a pale grey colour mottled with dull brown, 

 and have a whining, querulous note. The plumage becomes gradually 

 lighter through the autumn, winter and spring; but it must be a year at 

 least before they are perfectly like the adults in the fine ash-blue of the 

 wings, and in the white bosom with its lovely perceptible blush. It is 

 now ten months since the young were fledged, and yet, in a flock, an ob- 

 server at a hundred yards distance can easily distinguish them from the 

 old birds. 



"So soon as the young birds are able to fly, the breeding-place is for- 

 saken, the whole concourse leaving in a body, or scattering in all direc- 

 tions over the surrounding country ; and until the following summer, the 

 movements of the birds depend altogether on food and water. As I men- 

 tioned in my last letter, in seasons of drought they disappear totally, and 

 when Grasshoppers are very abundant appear in countless multitudes. 



