316 ANSERES. LARID.E. 



shore. Their periodical migrations from the coast 

 to their breeding localities and back, are so re- 

 gular that they may be calculated on almost to a 

 day. 



The food of this species consists of insects, 

 worms, spawn, fry, and small fishes ; it has been 

 seen dashing round some lofty elms catching cock- 

 chafers. In spring it follows the plough as regu- 

 larly as the Rook, and from the great number of 

 worms and grubs which it devours renders no un- 

 important benefit to the farmer. Nor is this the 

 only way in which these birds are useful ; for both 

 their eggs and young are valued for the table. Of 

 the former Mr. Selby speaks as being well-flavoured, 

 free from a fishy taste, and when boiled hard, as 

 not easily distinguishable from those of the Lap- 

 wing, for which they are sometimes substituted in 

 the market. He adds, that the young are still 

 eaten, though not in such demand as they formerly 

 were, when great numbers were annually taken 

 and fattened for the table, and when a Gullery 

 produced a revenue of from 50L to 80/. to the 

 proprietor. Willoughby describes one of these 

 colonies, which in his time annually built and bred 

 at Norbury in Staffordshire, in an island in the 

 middle of a great pool. " About the beginning 

 of March hither they come ; about the end of 

 April they build. They lay three, four, or five 

 eggs, of a dirty green colour, spotted with dark 

 brown, two inches long, of an ounce and a half 

 weight ; blunter at one end . . . When the 

 young are almost come to their full growth those 

 entrusted by the lord of the soil drive them from 

 off the island through the pool into nets set on the 

 banks to take them. When they have taken them 



