552 LARID^E. 



the greatest abundance. At this season a man and three 

 boys find constant employment in collecting them, and 

 they have sometimes gathered upwards of a thousand in 

 a day. These eggs are sold on the spot at the rate of 

 fourpence a score, and are regularly sent in considerable 

 quantities to the markets at Norwich and Lynn. They 

 are eaten cold, like Lapwings' eggs, and also used for 

 culinary purposes ; but they are rather of an inferior 

 quality, and somewhat like ducks' eggs in flavour. The 

 person who sells these eggs gives fifteen pounds a-year for 

 the privilege of collecting them. This species of Gull 

 never lays more than three eggs the first time ; but, if 

 these are taken, it will lay again. We found many of the 

 old birds sitting in the middle of June ; most of these had 

 only one egg in the nest, but a few of them had two. 

 Their nests are made of the tops of reeds and sedge, and 

 are very flat at the surface. The eggs vary so much in 

 size, shape, and colour, that a person not well acquainted 

 with them would suppose some of them to belong to a dif- 

 ferent species of bird. Some are thickly covered with 

 dusky spots, and others are of a light blue colour without 

 any spots at all. The young birds leave the nest as soon 

 as hatched, and take to the water. When they can fly 

 well the old ones depart with them, and disperse them- 

 selves on the sea-coast, where they are found during the 

 autumn and winter. By the middle of July they all leave 

 Scoulton, and are not seen there again till the following 

 spring. We were a little surprised at seeing some of these 

 Gulls alight and sit upon some low bushy willows which 

 grow on the island. No other than the Brown-headed 

 Gull breeds at this mere ; a few of them also breed in 

 many of the marshes contiguous to the sea-coast of Nor- 

 folk." 



