CHAP. xii.J A VORACIOUS INDIVIDUAL. 407 



be made to contain at its entrance the bathing-pond of 

 the birds. If the stream which supplies this can be 

 made to trickle done some overhanging rockwork planted 

 with ferns, heaths, mosses, &c., the materials for a little 

 bit of landscape are collected in a tableau vivant, which 

 taste of average goodness can hardly help making 

 pretty. 



But though all Gulls are destructive, I do not know 

 that they are quite cannibals ; it is hard to prove that 

 the large ones will eat the smaller individuals, as among 

 fishes, or the wives their husbands, as among certain 

 hawks and insects ; but otherwise they are not parti- 

 cular. All swallowable vermin, whether quadruped, 

 winged, or reptile, are soon made away with. A 

 Shoveller Duck turned into a pond where a large Gull 

 was established was shortly disposed of. And a large 

 Black-backed Gull of my acquaintance, discovering that 

 his master's cat had a fine grown litter of kittens, took 

 one a-day, and only one a-day, from their mother as 

 long as they lasted, in spite of her tiger-like maternal 

 fierceness. The last remaining meal at the end of this 

 series of kittens was in such prime condition, that it 

 was swallowed with difficulty ; and Gully was obliged 

 first to break and crunch every bone in its body, before 

 it could be got down. For fear this anecdote should 

 not be credited, I will state that the fact occurred in 

 the gardens of Lord (Baron) Stafford, Cossey Park, 

 near Norwich. Other people's misfortunes are so easy 

 to bear, that the poor cat got very little pity or help 

 during her daily bereavements : indeed the kittens 

 might as well be swallowed as drowned. But one day 

 the gardener's daughter was washing a rabbit, already 

 skinned, for dinner. Gully stood by watching the 



