ON THE BLACK HEADED GULL, 



533 



Or red, or yellow, white, or brown, 

 The club-like stem, the pent-house crown, 

 No mine through nature's wide domain, 

 But yields, when wrought, a precious vein. 



Still ruin spreads. Ev'n now a blast 

 Has o'er the lingering foliage past, 

 And round our steps the forest pours 

 Its gorgeous dress in frequent show'rs, 

 As full and frequent as the rain, 

 Which threatens soon to fall amain, 

 And with a veil the landscape shroud, 

 Impervious as the morning cloud. 

 Such oft is life's brief day ! At first 

 'Tis wrapt in gloom, but that disperst, 

 All radiant does its noontide shine ; 

 In gloom its evening hours decline. 

 O, for those days, from morn till night, 

 When all is gladness, all is light ! 



Enough : behoves we homeward haste, 

 Content and grateful to have past 

 Not pleasureless, throughout our way, 

 Nor useless, this October day. 

 Blest, who can soften care, or find 

 Employment for the vacant mind, 

 In nature's scenes ! Thrice blest is he, 

 Who onward easts his eyes to see, 

 In all that through the waters move, 

 In earth beneath, and heav'n above, 

 The Sovereign Pow'r who nature made, 

 The Author in his works display'd ! 



October, 1833. 



ON THE BLACK-HEADED GULL (Larus Ridibundus.) 



BY MR. C. PARSONS. 



I reside very near the coast in Essex, and to observe the various 

 species that resort here, and retire at each successive change of season, 

 has been for years a source of pleasure to me. 



The black-headed gull is a constant resident with us, but not till 

 last summer have I ever been able to discover a nest in my immediate 

 neighbourhood, although on a small island, about twelve miles further 



