240 THE GULL. 



feet of the fledgling, a crawful of half-digested 

 shrimps and softened crabs. 



We cannot quit this account of the Gulls and 

 their breeding places on the west coast of England, 

 without referring to the history of the Laughing 

 Gulls (Larus ridibundus\ which annually frequent 

 a particular spot in Norfolk. From time immemo- 

 rial, these birds have frequented an island in a mere 

 about thirty miles from the sea, at Woodrising, the 

 property of John Weyland, Esq. It contains within 

 its banks about seventy acres, nearly thirty of which 

 are occupied by a large island, consisting of about 

 eighteen acres of remarkably fine reeds (Arundo 

 phragmiies^) in great request for thatching ; two or 

 three acres of broad flag, as much of coarse grass, 

 mixed with a small quantity of fine sedge, and 

 about sixteen in the centre, where the island is 

 firmly attached to the bottom, are occupied by 

 birch brushwood, out of which rise birch trees, 

 from thirty to forty feet in height, not one of which 

 has ever been blown down by the gales, which 

 often make sad havoc with the oaks and other trees. 

 It is 011 this island chiefly that the Gulls breed, a few 

 only wandering to smaller pieces of water in the 

 neighbourhood. The produce of the island being 

 valuable, is completely cleared off in the course of 

 the Winter, except the brushwood and trees; so that 

 in the early Spring, it is in a very convenient state 

 for the accommodation of the birds, the details of 

 whose operations are as follows. 



About the middle of February, for an hour or two 

 in the course of the day, their well-known cry may 

 be heard, high in the air, proceeding from a few 



