GULLS. 317 



they feed them with the entrails of beasts, and 

 when they are fat sell them for fourpence or five- 

 pence a-piece. They yearly take about a thousand 

 two hundred young ones, whence may be com- 

 puted what profit the lord makes of them. About 

 the end of July they all fly away and leave the 

 island." 



Another breeding station, which seems to 

 have been occupied by these birds for more than 

 three hundred years, is described in the " Ca- 

 talogue of Norfolk and Suffolk birds." " Near 

 the centre of the county of Norfolk, at the dis- 

 tance of about twenty-five miles from the sea, is a 

 large piece of water called Seoul ton Mere. In 

 the middle of this mere there is a boggy island of 

 seventy acres extent, covered with reeds, and on 

 which there are some birch and willow trees. 

 There is no , river communicating between the 

 mere and the sea. This mere has from time im- 

 memorial been a favourite breeding spot of the 

 Brown-headed Gull. These birds begin to make 

 their appearance at Scoulton about the middle of 

 February ; and by the end of the first week in 

 March the great body of them have always ar- 

 rived. They spread themselves over the neigh- 

 bouring country to the distance of several miles 

 in search of food, following the plough like Rooks. 

 If the spring is mild the Gulls begin to lay about 

 the middle of April; but the month of May is 

 the time at which the eggs are found in the great- 

 est abundance. At this season a man and three 

 boys find constant employment in collecting them, 

 and they have sometimes gathered upwards of a 

 thousand in a day. These eggs are sold on the 

 spot at the rate of fourpence a score, and are re- 



