410 CAPTUBE OF GULLS. [CHAP. xii. 



Many facts favour the scheme. Dr. Neill's Gull, which 

 went off every year to breed, and then came back to his 

 master again, shows a strong capacity for attachment to 

 home. In spring Gulls with us will follow the plough 

 in search of worms and grubs, as closely as Rooks do, 

 and indeed in company with them. This year (1850) a 

 a pair of (I think) Herring Gulls have bred in the 

 Regent's Park Gardens, and two young were reared. 

 Such instances are probably not more frequently met 

 with only because Gulls are mostly solitary captives. 



The Herring season is, on the south-east coast, the 

 grand season for catching live Gulls. Birds of the 

 previous spring for old ones are but seldom taken 

 get entangled in the nets, are made prisoners by the 

 fishermen, and are brought ashore when the boats re- 

 turn. The boys also, who accompany their fathers, and 

 are indulged with a fishing jaunt on the German Ocean, 

 are very fond of angling for Gulls. A .hook, or even a 

 large bent pin, is baited with a piece of fish, and if the 

 bird which takes it is dexterously struck before the bait 

 is quite swallowed, little serious injury is done to the 

 creature*. It is kept alive on board as a plaything, 

 and, when the party lands, produces an addition of six- 

 pence or a shilling to its ravisher's pocket-money. All 

 live Gulls, in such hands, have, of course, the same 

 market value. The rarest of the rare would go for the 

 same money, or be bartered for the same value in kind, 



* Mr. St. John was very nearly successful in fly-fishing for Gulls : 

 " Once away from the rocks, we were safe enough, and rigging out a 

 couple of strong lines with large white flies, we caught as many fish 

 of different kinds as we could pull in during our way over to" Cro- 

 marty. A large Grull made two swoops at one of the* flies, and had 

 not a fish forestalled him, we should probably have hooked him also." 

 Wild Sports of the Highlands, p. 125. 



