CATCHING YOUNG GULLS. 155 



The walk was fatiguing ; the glare from the perpen- 

 dicular precipice, an unbroken face of white chalk 

 reflecting the rays of a July sun, was most oppressive 

 to the eyes, soon inducing frontal headache; and the 

 loose shingle alternating with looser sand afforded no 

 firm hold for the sinking and sliding footsteps. My 

 two lads ran before, chasing, with great glee, the young 

 gulls, almost fledged, which had descended in some 

 unintelligible manner, from their nest-ledges up the 

 precipice, but were unable to fly. Cutting off their 

 retreat to the water, the boys chased them till the poor 

 things sought refuge in some corner of the cliff, where 

 of course they were easily caught. They brought 

 home two, nearly grown, which I believe they kept in 

 their gardens for some time. They were probably the 

 Lesser Black-backed Gull {Larus fuscus) , though, as 

 several species breed about these cliffs, which present 

 little difference in their nesting plumage, I cannot be 

 certain. 



A heap of broken rocks, half exposed at lowest 

 water, lies off the corner that terminates the beach. 

 It is known to the fishermen by the name of the Cow 

 and Calf These rocks I wished to examine for Algse, 

 and found my search not fruitless. The species were 

 growing from the broken fragments of fallen chalk in 

 considerable abundance, and the specimens were par- 

 ticularly well-grown. Among them a pretty species 

 was common, which I had not observed at Weymouth, 

 — Chylocladia ovalis. I have compared the ramuli 

 of C. articulata to bladders of red wine, set in 

 chains; those of the present species are still more 

 like such bladders, but more oval, and set in rows 



