252 LARID^E. 



source of rivers and streams, and displaying their beautiful 

 evolutions upon the wing. 



Certain that the protection extended towards them in the 

 country will not be abused in the city, we observe them, 

 during seven months of the year, in various numbers along 

 the most busy and stirring portion of the quays of Dublin. 



Attracting the attention of every class, on many occasions 

 we have stood to admire their beautiful forms, between the 

 quay range from Carlisle to Essex Bridge. Displaying every 

 change of attitude, either the broad sweep of the wing in 

 flight, the downward, gliding stoop, or poising over the water 

 with feet half immersed, they continue to search for food, until, 

 wearied of exertion, they drop buoyantly on the water, and 

 allow themselves to float onward with its tidal motion. Un- 

 suspecting of danger, they approach within a few feet of the 

 wall, whence we can distinguish the plumage of all seasons, 

 the brown monk-like hood of spring, the black ear-patch 

 of winter, and the attractive shades of brown peculiar to the 

 young in their various stages. 



Invested with interest from the fragments of bardic tradi- 

 tion which cling to it, this species was protected by the Druids, 

 and was figuratively adopted as an emblem connected with 

 the deluge, and formed an important feature in their cere- 

 monies : 



" Screams round the arch-druid's 

 Brow the sea-mew, white 

 As Menia's foam." 



Not disagreeable in taste, the flesh of the redshank gull is 

 eaten by most of the shooters who obtain it. During spring 

 the eggs of this species occasionally appear in the markets of 

 the city mixed up with those of the lapwing, to which they 

 are not much inferior in delicacy of flavour. 



That they were equally valued at a remote period we have 

 the testimony of a passage from a " description of the income 

 of the King of Uladh (Ulster), where the bard Benean men- 

 tions, amongst other stipends,"* 



" Twenty eggs of goodly sea-gulls !" 



And again, as late as 1512, we find " sea guiles" accounted 

 a great delicacy, and admitted to the principal feasts of that 

 day, and, more strange, even valued at the same price as the 

 teal. 



Indigenous. 



* l/eabhap na 5-Ceapc, The Book of Rights. 



