BLACK-HEADED GULLS. 195 



ver's eggs ; ' but the deception is unimportant : 

 most of the former are quite as delicate ; and even 

 of the latter, when new-laid and hard-boiled, the 

 flavour is unexceptionable, as I can vouch from 

 personal, experience, having myself taken them 

 for the express purpose of submitting them to 

 this culinary test. If gathered when they are 

 some days old, or in the least degree stale, they 

 have doubtless a certain fishy taste which would 

 prove disagreeable to a refined palate. 



The black-headed gull (larus ridibundus) still 

 breeds in immense numbers on some of the 

 marshy islands which are situated among the 

 inland lakes of Scotland and the eastern counties 

 of England. During winter it frequents the flat 

 shores of the coast, especially near the mouths 

 of great rivers, but on the return of spring in- 

 variably revisits its usual inland haunts. In 

 former days, when the young of these birds, as 

 well as their eggs, were considered a delicacy, a 

 preserve of this kind was said to have produced a 

 rent of from 501. to SOL a year. The latter are 

 still highly prized, as would appear from an ac- 

 count of the gullery at Scoulton, in Norfolk, by 

 the Rev. R. Lubbock, who says that " the swampy 

 island upon which they breed occupies a great 

 portion of the mere, and the gulls are indeed in 

 myriads upon it. The worthy proprietor does 



K 2 



