350 LAEID^. 



and France. What he says of both species in those countries 

 applies to them generally in Ireland. 



This gull is much seen about estuary rivers^ and we are more 

 certain of having an opportunity of observing it when the tide is 

 flowing or full about the bridge spanning the river Lagan, at Bel- 

 fast, than anywhere in the neighbourhood. To witness them feeding 

 here is a very pleasing sight, and many a passer-by pauses to admire 

 them. Their flight is so much lower and nearer to persons pass- 

 ing over the bridge on Sundays than at other times, in consequence 

 I have no doubt of the greater quiet of the day and absence of 

 aU bustle, that it is often remarked, " they know well when Sunday 

 comes,^^ it being imagined that they are aware they will not be 

 fired at on that day. They are here at all seasons, but in the 

 height of summer very few are seen. Once, on the 32nd of May, 

 I noted twenty flying about the bridge, but all of them w^ere 

 immature. Owing to the absence of gulls generally from the ad- 

 joining bay in the breeding season, it is deficient in one of the 

 finest elements of life and beauty, and at low water, with the vast 

 extent of banks exposed, appears comparatively a dreary blank. 

 Along an extent of miles we now see but a few individuals, 

 not more than a unit for a hundred in the winter season. Some 

 fowlers have observed, that the only birds always to be seen here 

 are a few gulls, curlews, ring-plover, and dunlins : most of the 

 other species being entirely absent until the time of their return 

 from breeding. Indeed, though the bird is out of view and far 

 distant from us at the edge of the channel during extreme low 

 water, we may daily hear the sharp clear cackle of the young 

 herring-gull, which sometimes rings acutely on the ear, the same 

 note being often repeated about a dozen times. It is almost in- 

 variably answered by another bird, and often from a distance of 

 between one and two miles ; both birds are rarely visible at the 

 same time. 



Tliat common gulls often retire to a distance inland from the 

 sea is weU known. Sir Humphrey Davy remarks upon the sub- 

 ject : — " I believe that the reason of tliis migration of sea-gulls, 

 and other sea-birds to the land, is their security of finding food. 



