BRITISH BIRDS. 211 



manner as many have been caught in one morning" 

 as, when sold at five shillings per dozen, (the usual 

 price at that time,) produced the sum of twelve 

 pounds ten shillings; and that in the several drifts 

 on the few succeeding days of this sport, they have 

 been taken in some years in such abundance, that 

 their value, according to the above rate, was from 

 thirty to sixty pounds, a great sum in those days. 

 These Avere the Scc-Giillcs, of which we read as 

 being so plentifully provided at the great feasts of 

 the ancient nobility and bishops of this realm. 

 Although the flesh of these birds is not now 

 esteemed a dainty, and they are seldom sought 

 after as an article of food, yet in the breeding 

 season, where accommodation and protection are 

 afforded them, they still regularly resort to the 

 same old haunts which have been occupied by their 

 kind for a long time past.* The foregoing figure 

 and description were taken from a specimen shot 

 on Prestwick-Car, near Newcastle upon Tyne. 



According to Temminck, the Larus Erythropus 

 of Linnaeus, La petite Mouette grise of Brisson, the 

 Brown-Headed Gull of Latham, is believed to be 

 this species in its immature plumage. 



these birds to the head of that family, of their removal to another 

 spot immediately on his death, and of their returning again with the 

 same predilection to his heir, is curious enough, although bordering 

 very much upon the marvellous. Willoughby gives nearly the same 

 account, in his excellent Ornithology, published in 1678, and com- 

 putes the sale of the birds to amount to twenty-five pounds per 

 annum. 



* This is the case with the flocks which now breed at Pallinsburne, 

 in Northumberland, where they are accounted of great use in clear- 

 ing the surrounding lands of noxious insects, worms, slugs, &c. 



