380 HISTORY OF 



straight, slender, and sharp pointed. They all, 

 however, agree in their appetites, and their places 

 of abode. 



The gull, and all its varieties, is very well 

 known in every part of the kingdom. It is seen 

 with a slow sailing flight hovering over rivers to 

 prey upon the smaller kinds of fish ; it is seen fol- 

 lowing the ploughman in fallow fields to pick up 

 insects ; and when living animal food does not 

 offer, it has even been known to eat carrion, and 

 whatever else of the kind that offers. Gulls are 

 found in great plenty in every place ; but it is 

 chiefly round our boldest rockiest shores that they 

 are seen in the greatest abundance : it is there 

 that the gull breeds and brings up its young ; it 

 is there that millions of them are heard scream- 

 ing with discordant notes for months together. 



Those who have been much upon our coasts, 

 know that there are two different kinds of shores 

 that which slants down to the water with a gentle 

 declivity, and that which rises with a precipitate 

 boldness, that seems set as a bulwark to repel the 

 force of the invading deeps. It is to such shores 

 as these that the whole tribe of the gull kind 

 resort, as the rocks offer them a retreat for their 

 young, and the sea a sufficient supply. It is in 

 the cavities of these rocks, of which the shore is 

 composed, that the vast variety of sea fowls retire 

 to breed in safety. The waves beneath, that con- 

 tinually beat at the base, often wear the shore in- 

 to an impending boldness, so that it seems to jut 

 out over the water, while the raging of the sea 

 makes the place inaccessible from below. These 



