BLACK-HEADED GULL. 75 



ON SPRING, 



ON SEEING THE GULLS RETURN TO PALLINSBURN LAKE, 

 NORTHUMBERLAND. 



THIS day with joy my heart doth beat 



An emblem of the spring's return 

 1 saw by General Askew's* seat, 



The bonny House of Pallinsburn. 



A pool is there, some acres wide, 



Enclosed by trees, with water full ; 

 And, swarming on the rippling tide, 



We see the little cawing Gull. 



The sixth of March we see them come, 

 Although at nights they do not stay, 



Till floods subside and give them room 

 Where they may on the islands lay. 



We see them soaring o'er our head, 



We see them sailing on the lake, 

 Or following close the ploughman's tread, 



The little creeping worms to take. 



For five long months we see them stay, 



But when the yellow leaves appear, 

 They take their wings and flee away 



An emblem of the fading year. 



But here I do my rhyme forsake 



Should poets view the scene, 

 Some better verses they may make 

 About the Gulls at yonder lake, 



And fields and forests green. WILLIAM ROBSON. 



The Black-headed Gull occasionally visits Oxfordshire, singly 

 or in parties of three or four. In Cornwall, they are not 

 uncommon at Penryn river. In Surrey, the species has oc- 

 curred at Godalming. In Northumberland, at Prestwick Carr, 

 near Newcastle. 



In Scotland, there are large colonies on the islets in Loch 

 Lomond, and several -of the Lochs of Sutherlandshire. The 

 same in the Hebrides. In Orkney some breed about the 

 Loch of Stenness, in Sanday, and other localities there. 



In Ireland, it is also a constant resident. 



In Wales, also, in Carmarthenshire and Glamorganshire, 

 especially about the mouths of rivers. 



In spring and summer these birds dwell by marshes, rivers, 



* Sir Henry Askew 



