GULL. 155 



like others, on the rocks and cliffs, and lays two, or at most three, 

 dull, olive-brown eggs, about the size of those of a Hen, marked 

 with irregular, dusky red blotches. The nests generally made of 

 sea weed, and placed near together, about fourteen feet from the sea 

 beach. On the Continent it is a general inhabitant; seen as far 

 north as Iceland, and the Russian Lakes; also in the neighbourhood 

 of the Caspian Sea, and various shores of the Mediterranean, as well 

 as in Greece, but no where more plentiful than on the shores of 

 Andalusia, and about the Bay of Gibraltar, except in the breeding 

 season, when they retire to the more rocky, and less frequented 

 shores of Spain and Barbary. All the winter they attend the 

 fishermen in prodigious flocks, but will suffer no other persons to 

 come near them, either on land or water ; and it requires much 

 patience and dexterity to get an opportunity of shooting them. One 

 very similar is found in India, but with yellow bill and legs. It is 

 called there Gongcheel ; is also found in America, being frequent on 

 the coast of Newfoundland. 



Much has been said about the gelatinous substance called Star 

 Shot, or Star Jelly, which is the half-digested remains of worms, 

 frogs, &c. first swallowed by Gulls or Herons, and the indigestible 

 parts brought up again ; for on examination, the limbs of frogs have 

 sometimes been found attached, and this lump of matter being further 

 enlarged, and swelled by rain and moisture, when found in the 

 marshes and low lands, puts on the appearance of a jelly, and in this 

 state has been mistaken for the Tremella Nostoc, but the difference 

 between the two may be detected by the scientific botanist.* 



* See Br. Zool. Art. Winter Gull. Morton's Northampt. p. 353. Gent. Mag. 1793. 

 p. 135. Bee, Vol. ii. p. 132. Also Wither. Bot. Ed.'m. Vol. iv. p. 80. Sowerby's Botany, 

 pi. 461. 



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