160 GULLS' FLIGHT AN INDEX TO WEATHER. [PART u. 



backwards and forwards within a few feet of our 

 heads, as if he thought he had been a fool after 

 all. The captain of one of the Dover and Ostend 

 steamers told me that he had seen a Gull come and 

 take off the taffrail food which had been placed 

 there for him. 



Changes of weather may be foretold with con- 

 siderable accuracy by observing the flight of Gulls, 

 as, after feeding inland, they, according to their 

 invariable custom, wing their way homewards 

 towards evening to their roosting-places in the 

 cliffs ; making this transit in fine weather high 

 and in comparative silence, but in bad blustery 

 weather, and before rain, much more noisily and 

 nearer to the ground, merely skirting the tops of 

 the coverts which lie in their course. 



