CHAPTER XCV 

 SEA-GULLS 



ARE constant visitors to the Broads. They come in " ter 

 wash their nets," as the natives say. And, in truth, they 

 do come in (when not storm-driven) to wash, and take in 

 fresh-water. At all seasons of the year you may see their 

 white wings flashing against the blue, as they sail over the 

 sand-dunes, and drop with loud wild voices on to the still 

 waters, where they sport, drink, and preen their feathers, 

 whilst a watchman sits on duty; and should you disturb 

 them, they will rise with their wild laka, laka, laka, and 

 the cou-l-ooe, cou-l-ouc of the herring-gull, all flying away 

 to sea to rob the fishing-nets, if it be the herring-season. 

 And yet the sentimentalist raises his voice in the land, 

 regardless of these depredations on the fisherman, and eke to 

 the landowner ; for the great " saddle-backs " are as ruthless 

 in their search for eggs or young birds as are rooks or crows. 

 I have seen them beating in early spring over the land, 

 flying low, on the look-out for eggs or tender fledglings. 



In September, when the reeds are yellow and the waters 

 blue, the common gull and the herring-gulls come to the 

 broads in increased numbers, and hundreds of them may 

 be seen idly floating upon the still lagoons into which 

 they often " scorf up " whole herrings dreaming, mayhap, 

 of the sea, whose roar comes over the dunes, while others 

 come and go, or settle with them; and on a bright sun- 

 shiny day hundreds can be seen sitting motionless on the 

 waters ; or, if the winter be hard, and the land be white, and 

 the broads be laid, you may see them sluggishly resting 



