52 HAPPY HUNTING-GROUNDS 



latter rushed off to retrieve him as fast as his four 

 legs could carry him, but was rewarded for his impa- 

 tience and excess of zeal by a vicious dig which made 

 him speedily drop the flapping quarry. The bullet 

 could not have penetrated any vital part, for before I 

 could come to the rescue the bird had recovered suffi- 

 ciently to fly away, and I never saw it again. I cannot 

 myself from my own personal observation convict the 

 smaller gulls of poaching, but I have heard keepers 

 lately give them a bad character as egg robbers ; and 

 even after giving them all credit for the undoubted 

 good which they do in the destruction of wireworms 

 and grubs, I question whether their protection and 

 preservation is not now a trifle overdone. 



They destroy fish and fry in enormous quantities, 

 and the angler owes them another grudge for the 

 persistent way in which they hawk and kill May flies, 

 March browns, and other ephemera as they emerge 

 from the water before they have had time to deposit 

 their ova. It is quite a sight to see gulls hovering in 

 flocks over the Tweed at Coldstream when there is a 

 strong rise of fly, and taking the nymphs as fast as 

 they come to the surface. No wonder that these per- 

 secuted insects are becoming less common than of yore, 

 preyed upon as they are in all stages of their career ; 

 first in their embryo state by the larvae of the dragon- 

 fly and water-beetle, next by the fish both before and 

 after their first flight, and lastly during their brief so- 

 journ in the upper element, by innumerable feathered 

 enemies, among which the gull and the chaffinch are 

 not the least persistent and destructive. Beautiful 

 and graceful as are the plumage and flight of these 

 engaging birds, now so familiar a spectacle to Lon- 



