406 THE GULL. 



from the main body to a retired crag or niche, as if to rest 

 awhile in perfect silence. 



Now and then, indeed, as if by mutual consent, the uproar 

 entirely ceased, and the whole body settled themselves on a 

 rocky inclined plane, interspersed with grass, just below the 

 light-keepers' dwellings, which formed their grand nursery 

 establishment ; for there, in every stage of growth, hundreds 

 of young ones were moving about. No doubt each parent 

 had a perfect knowledge of its own offspring, though, generally 

 speaking, there were no signs of recognition ; for, to all ap- 

 pearance, old and young seemed to mingle, without much 

 reference to relationship ; and a stranger might have supposed 

 there was a common property in the nestlings. The only 

 sign of parental attachment was, that an old bird would 

 now and then fix its eye in a more pointed manner upon 

 some one of these living gray puff-balls of downy feathers, 

 and then, suddenly opening its mouth, deposit at the feet of 

 the fledgling a cr awful of half- digested shrimps and softened 

 crabs. 



We cannot quit this account of the Gulls and their 

 breeding-places on the west coast of England without refer- 

 ring to the history of the Laughing Gulls (Larus ridibundus), 

 which annually frequent a particular spot in Norfolk. From 

 time immemorial, these birds have frequented an island in a 

 mere about thirty miles from the sea, at Woodrising, the 

 property of John Weyland, Esq. It contains within its 

 banks about seventy acres, nearly thirty of which are occu- 

 pied by a large island, consisting of about eighteen acres of 

 remarkably fine reeds (AruTido phragmites), in great request 

 for thatching ; two or three acres of broad flag, as much of 

 coarse grass, mixed with a small quantity of fine sedge, and 

 about sixteen in the centre, where the island is firmly 

 attached to the bottom, are occupied by birch brushwood, out 

 of which rise birch-trees, from thirty to forty feet in height, 

 not one of which has ever been blown down by the gales, 

 which often make sad havoc with the oaks and other trees. 

 It is on this island chiefly that the Gulls breed, a few only 

 wandering to smaller pieces of water in the neighbourhood. 



