CHAPTER XII. 



GULLS IN CAPTIVITY, AND GULLERIES. 



Desirable pets. Longevity. Discipline of new-caught birds. Reconciliations 

 and confidences. Good-natured, not stupid. Hardy and accommodating, but 

 not ascetic. Requisites for a Gullery. Voracity of Gulls. Black-headed Gull. 

 Its mode of nesting. Its eggs. Domesticability of Gulls. Their capture. 

 Application of the method to Geese. The birds kept in Dr. Neill's Gullery. 

 Docility of Cormorants. Chinese Fishing Cormorants. Albatrosses. Their 

 capture. Nesting-places. Battues. Dangers of a calm. Principle of flight. 



To residents in the Midland Counties of England 

 and in the central regions of continental Europe, it may 

 be suggested that Gulls and their near relations would 

 supply a novel, amusing, and easily-procured set of 

 ornamental occupants of their pleasure-grounds. The 

 birds of this group, though varying greatly in size, and 

 considerably in colouring, have still so much that is 

 common to all of them, that as far as our present ob- 

 ject is concerned, they may be spoken of in general 

 terms. They are all very tameable and attachable, very 

 full of fun and good-nature, very hardy, and very de- 

 structive of some things which it is not always con- 

 venient that they should be permitte d to destroy. 



Gulls, where they are free from accidents, no doubt 

 live to a great age. When rambling along the west 

 coast of Scotland, or steaming among its adjacent islands, 

 I have seen individuals standing on ledges of the rocks, 

 or launching out heavily into mid air if too near an 

 approach is made to them, which were perfect patriarchs, 

 shaming, both by their solid bulk, and plumage of more 



