242 THE GULL. 



weeks taken, that there may be a succession in the 

 hatches of the broods. 



The number of eggs collected annually varies 

 from fifteen to twenty thousand, and more might be 

 taken occasionally ; for instance, thirty thousand 

 would not have been too large a proportion for this 

 spring (1837), it having been a wet one. Notwith- 

 standing this drawback, the number of these annual 

 visitants appears to increase. They feed themselves 

 and their young, on week days, by following the 

 ploughman's heels, pouncing fearlessly upon the grubs 

 and worms turned up by the share, so that they are 

 great favourites with all the farmers within six or 

 seven miles of the mere. On Sundays, when the 

 ploughs are not at work, they betake themselves 

 to the meadows, and dry pastures, in search of 

 similar food, foraging over a whole field with the 

 greatest regularity and order. 



The eggs are very good eating, the yolk is consi- 

 dered by many equal to the Plover's, but the white less 

 transparent and gelatinous. The young birds, being 

 web-footed, take to the water as soon as hatched, 

 but are fed by the old ones till they can fly ; when 

 nearly fledged, they are not bad food, -though not 

 often brought to table at present. The young birds, 

 for the first year, are of a brownish gray colour, with 

 partial patches of white, but have neither the black 

 cap, nor black tips of wings, nor the delicate white 

 of the breast, nor the slate-coloured back and wings, 

 which they return with in the following year. They 

 remain till the young birds are strong enough for a 

 long flight, when they assemble in detachments, on 



