BLACK-HEADED GULL. 551 



such situations it is very common, and while wearing its 

 dark brown hood in summer is easily recognised and well- 

 known, It frequents all parts of the coast during winter, 

 but being decidedly a marsh breeder, assembles in great 

 numbers early in spring, year after year, constantly, at 

 various favourable localities for the purpose of incubation. 

 These birds are abundant at the mouth of the Thames, 

 both in Kent and in Essex, but the most so in the latter 

 county, breeding by hundreds on some of the low flat 

 islands on the coast, and in the marshes of the interior. 



A breeding station in Norfolk, at a place called Scoulton 

 Mere, where Sir Thomas Browne says this species bred 

 constantly in his time, three hundred years ago, is thus 

 described by the authors of the catalogue of Norfolk and 

 Suffolk Birds. " Near the centre of the county of Norfolk, 

 at the distance of about twenty- five miles from the sea, 

 and two from Hingham, is a large piece of water called 

 Scoulton 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 immemorial 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 arrived. They 

 spread themselves over the neighbouring country to the 

 distance of several miles in search of food, following the 

 plough as regularly as Rooks ; and, from the great quan- 

 tity of worms and grubs which they devour, they render 

 essential service to the farmer. 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 



