THE HERMNG-GULL. 357 



collected about the rocks so early as the 22nd of March, when the 

 place was visited byan ornithologist, but very severe weather ensued, 

 and they were later in laying than had been previously known. 

 I visited the rocks on the 2nd of May, and on sending a man 

 down to their chief baildiug-places, in tlu"ee different parts of the 

 clitfs, not an egg was found, but the nests, which are formed of 

 grass, &c., were completed for their reception. The rocks were 

 said never before to have been ^vithout eggs on May-day. Heddles, 

 who has gone down the cliffs here in the season, to collect eggs, 

 for above thirty years, states — that the usual number is three, 

 rarely foui' ; that there is one brood, and the period of incubation 

 is a month. He thinks that they would continue laying in the 

 same nest for a month if the eggs were all regularly taken away 

 when quite fresh, but that if one be left they will incubate it. He is 

 in the habit of taking the eggs for his own use, and that of liis 

 friends ; — as objects for sale, they are not collected here, unless 

 specially ordered, nor is any one accustomed to go down the 

 rocks but himself.* These gulls, with the exception of a few, 

 leave the rocks every morning, and do not return before evening, 

 until the complement of eggs has been laid and incubation com- 

 menced. They are said to breed occasionally before being per- 

 fectly mature, but the plumage, &c., of such birds described to me 

 denotes their being three years old. They leave the rocks so soon 

 as the young are able to fly, which is generally early in August. 

 During the winter not one is seen here. At all times of spring 

 and summer that I have known this locality visited, some of these 

 gulls were about the newly ploughed ground ; occasionally in little 

 flocks of from six to ten in number, "following the plough," 

 and in such cases generally exhibiting more caution than the 

 black-headed gulls when so engaged, by alighting helnnd the 

 ploughman. From these birds frequenting the newly-sown oat- 

 fields, it is imagined that their visits are in search of the grain, in 

 proof of which it is urged that "shellings" of corn are seen 



* Aa ornithologiccal frieiul wlio partook of tlie eggs of the hening-gull nnd razor- 

 bill obtained here, eonsidercd those of the fonucr, though quite fresh, to have a very 

 strong llavour, while those of the latter were good and delicate. 



