BIRD LIFE IN COLONSAY 53 



doners, I am afraid that their numbers have increased 

 unduly. But I could not persuade myself to lend a 

 hand in their destruction ; I love too well to watch 

 them under all conditions, whether following the 

 plough and swooping down upon the prey disclosed in 

 the upturned furrow, or accompanying the Columba 

 in its swift voyage from Gourock to Ardrishaig, poised 

 in the air above the tiller, and keeping up with the 

 vessel with just an occasional turn of their strong 

 pinions. I love also to throw them crumbs, as they 

 circle round the children and nursemaids feeding the 

 waterfowl by the Serpentine and the ornamental 

 water in St. James' Park, but I cannot agree with 

 those who think that these pauperised pensioners are 

 in any danger of starvation. To my eyes they seem 

 plump and well-fed enough, and it is only occasionally 

 that they will take the trouble to pay for their enter- 

 tainment by displaying their marvellous feats of 

 catching. The experience of the hard winter which 

 first brought them to town has taught them that in 

 addition to the voluntary benevolence upon which 

 they can confidently rely, abundance of waste and 

 refuse food floats down the Thames ; and it is not for 

 nothing that they return again and again to the dis- 

 covered treasure-house, bringing in their train " their 

 sisters, their cousins, and their aunts." 



Black-headed laughing gulls do not breed in 

 Colonsay, but depart for that purpose to one of the large 

 inland lakes on the mainland, where they congregate 

 in great gulleries during the nesting season. Numbers 

 of their eggs are sent to London and elsewhere for 

 food, although I have not often seen them exposed for 

 sale under their own name in the poulterers' shops. 



