102 PLOVERS' EGGS AND OTHERS 



shores and islands of certain lakes, and sometimes, where 

 no lake now remains, upon a moss which has grown up 

 in the bed of some primeval sheet of water. Thousands 

 of years may have passed since the ancestors of these 

 gulls, attracted to such a spot by the expanse of sparkling 

 waters, chose its banks as their breeding-ground. Now, 

 it is well known how conservative most birds are in 

 haunting the same locality, even after its physical 

 features have undergone sweeping change. Professor 

 Newton has recorded an instance of this characteristic 

 in the stone-curlew {Odicnemus scolopax), perhaps of all 

 British birds the one that most affects bare and open 

 wastes. From immemorial times they had bred upon a 

 heath at Elveden, in Suftblk, whereof many years ago 

 some three hundred acres were planted. A pair of stone- 

 curlews continued to nest on the traditional spot long 

 after it had become the centre of a flourishing woodland. 

 Even so, these black-headed gulls continue to lay their 

 eggs in sociable communities upon what were once the 

 shores of and islands in a lake, notwithstanding that the 

 formation of peat has filled up that lake, and dry heather 

 now covers the expanse where once the wavelets glittered 

 and tinkled. 



Nothing is easier than to collect the eggs of these gulls, 

 for they are laid closely over a limited space of ground, 

 and have not to be painfully hunted for like those of the 

 less sociable lapwing. The yolk is larger and of a richer 

 orange than in the plover's egg ; the flavour is much the 

 same : yet have I seldom heard of shepherds and moor- 

 land cottars supplementing their monotonous fare with 

 these seasonable delicacies. Nevertheless, the eggs of 

 black-headed gulls are finding their way to the market in 



