160 GULLS’ FLIGHT AN INDEX TO WEATHER. [PART II. 
backwards and forwards within a few feet of our 
heads, as if he thought he had been a fool after 
all. The captain of one of the Dover and Ostend 
steamers told me that he had seen a Gull come and 
take off the taffrail food which had been placed 
there for him. 
Changes of weather may be foretold with con- 
siderable accuracy by observing the flight of Gulls, 
as, after feeding inland, they, according to their 
invariable custom, wing their way homewards 
towards evening to their roosting-places in the 
cliffs; making this transit in fine weather high 
and in comparative silence, but in bad blustery 
weather, and before rain, much more noisily and 
nearer to the ground, merely skirting the tops of 
the coverts which lie in their course. 
