424 
MEWS AND THEIR NEST. 
breed along the coast on rocky headlands and wind-swept cliffs, as if 
they loved the " elemental war," and could sleep only when rocked to 
rest by the wild music of the waters. Their enemies are few, and their 
young are hardy ; so that little care is necessary in the preparation of 
their "homestead." It is usually built up of withered herbage and 
fragments of turf ; bulky, but rude, and in striking contrast, as are the 
nests of all birds of prey, to the delicate work of some of the fruit- 
eating or insectivorous birds. The mews are very numerous, and their 
discordant scream may be heard on almost every part of our island- 
shores. They show no great dread of man, and may often be seen far 
inland, hovering over the rippling stream and trout-haunted brook. 
Their scent for prey is very keen, and after a wreck they assemble in 
great numbers — so swiftly, that they would seem to have been actuated 
all at once by a common impulse. 
The mews belong to the great Gull famil3\ The species are many 
— as, for instance, the leaden-gray hooded mew, which to fisher-folk is 
generally known as the laughing gull ; the brown hooded mew, which 
has several aliases ; and the little mew, or little gull. The cry of the 
first-named is so like a screech of elfin laughter, as completely to startle 
a person unaccustomed to it. The bird is by no means uncomely. He 
is of slender form and graceful outline, with long wings of a light bluish- 
gray. The head and neck are of a grayish-black ; the under parts 
white, with, however, a perceptible tinge of rosy red. 
BIRDS OF PREY. 
We have said that birds of prey are indifierent nest-builders. This 
is specially true of the eagle, whose eyrie, though of enormous dimen- 
sions compared with the size of the builder, is put together in the rudest 
possible manner. It is low, but very wide, and flat in the interior. The 
framework consists of stout branches, sometimes as thick as a man's arm ; 
next to which is laid a stratum of finer branches and twigs; the whole 
being lined with substances of great softness. The same eyi'ie serves 
the same birds for several years, but is annually repaired and enlarged. 
It is planted generally upon trees, or on an inaccessible crag, high up 
in air ; but in some cases is built upon the ground. 
