BLACK-HEADED GULL. 



93 



pounds ten shillings ; and that in the several drifts on the few 

 succeeding days of this sport, they have been taken in some years 

 in such abundance, that their value, according to the above rate, 

 was from thirty to sixty pounds — a great sum in those days. These 

 were the See Guiles of which we read as being so plentifully pro- 

 vided at the great feasts of the ancient nobility and bishops of this 

 realm. Although the flesh of these birds is not now esteemed a 

 dainty, and they are seldom sought after as an article of food, yet 

 in the breeding season, where accommodation and protection are 

 afforded them, they still regularly resort to the same old haunts, 

 which have been occupied by their kind for a long time past. This 

 is the case with the flocks which now breed at Pallinsburne, in 

 Northumberland, where they are accounted of great use in clear- 

 ing the surrounding lands of noxious insects, worms, slugs, &c.^^^ 



* Bewick's British Birds, part ii, p. 201. 



VOL. IX. 



A a 



