BLACK-HEADED GULL. 329 



the " Larus alba, or puets, in such plentie about 

 Horsey, that they sometimes bring them in carts to 

 Norwich, & sell them at small rates, & the country 

 people make vse of their egges in puddings & otherwise." 

 Although this was probably one of the largest gulleries 

 in the kingdom, I am not aware there is any other men- 

 tion of it in the early authorities, and it also seems 

 curious that, notwithstanding the fact that the young 

 of the black-headed gulls were very generally eaten 

 where they could be procured, no mention of these 

 birds appears to be contained in the le Strange House- 

 hold book unless, indeed, they be intended by the term 

 " whyt plouer." 



Early in the present century, when the late Mr. 

 Eising's father purchased the Horsey estate, it was so 

 isolated by marsh as to be almost unapproachable, and 

 probably had very little communication with the outer 

 world during the winter and spring months ; hence, 

 although Sir T. Browne says that " great plentie of 

 these birds have bred about Scoulton Mere, and from 

 thence sent to London ; " the young birds and eggs 

 from Horsey do not seem to have travelled further than 

 Norwich. 



The gulls continued to breed at Horsey till banished 

 by the drainage and inclosure of the land, the precise 

 date of which I have not been able to ascertain, but I 

 have little doubt the group of smaller gulleries which I 

 shall have to mention now, are tenanted by the descend- 

 ants of the Horsey birds, small parties from which 

 locality dispersed in various directions and settled in 

 suitable spots as near their old home as possible. 



Mr. Lubbock mentions that a small colony took 

 possession " formerly " of the margin of Eollesby broad, 

 and, as his " Fauna " was published in 1845, it is not at 

 all unlikely that these birds may have come there direct 

 from Horsey. In June, 1854, I paid a visit to this 

 breeding-place, and was told that they first made their 

 appearance there "many years ago," but had been so 

 persecuted that they gradually deserted the place ; how- 

 ever, about the year 1848 or 1849, some five or six pairs 

 re- appeared, and having been protected and allowed 

 undisturbed possession of the spot, had rapidly increased, 



2T 



