388 THE GULL. 



and so closely packed together on the favourite spots by the 

 edge of the water, that an outspread hand would touch two or 

 three of them. They lay three thin-shelled eggs, and instantly 

 begin to sit, so that the egg-gatherers are obliged to be on the 

 alert to take them before that process begins. "For some time 

 no eggs were allowed to be taken, but on its being ascertained 

 that, in consequence of so many being hatched at once, several 

 were starved, a certain proportion only were preserved, and 

 the remainder are for a few weeks taken, that there may be a 

 succession in the hatches of the broods. 



The number of eggs collected annually varies from fifteen 

 to twenty thousand, and more might be taken occasionally ; 

 for instance, thirty thousand would not have been too large a 

 proportion for the spring of 1837, it having been a wet one. 

 Notwithstanding this drawback, the number of these annual 

 visitants appears to increase. They feed themselves and their 

 young on week-days by following the ploughman's heels, 

 pouncing fearlessly upon the grubs and worms turned up by 

 the share, so that they are great favourites with all the farmers 

 within six or seven miles of the mere. On Sundays, when 

 the ploughs are not at work, they betake themselves to the 

 meadows and dry pastures, in search of similar food, foraging 

 over a whole field with the greatest regularity and order. 



The eggs are very good eating : the yolk is considered by 

 many equal to the Plover's, but the white less transparent and 

 gelatinous. The young birds being web-footed, take to the 

 water as soon as hatched, but are fed by the old ones till they 

 can fly ; when nearly fledged, they are not bad food, though 

 not often brought to table at present. The young birds for 

 the first year are of a brownish grey colour, with partial patches 

 of white, but have neither the black cap, nor black tips of 

 wings, nor the delicate white of the breast, nor the slate- 

 coloured back and wings, which they return with in the follow- 

 ing year. They remain till the young birds are strong enough 

 for a long flight, when they assemble in detachments on an 

 open field in the evening, and go off in the night. The first 

 detachments retire about the end of July, and they almost 

 entirely disappear in the course of August. 



