24 
thus a wide spread inundation, as still occasionally occurs on 
Wretham heath, would attract waders and Avild fowl in unusual 
numbers to a diet of worms beneath the shallow flood. 
In the absence, in those days, of any special protection, the 
dangerous character of the surrounding soil must have formed the 
chief safeguard against human depredations, for both eggs and 
young ; and as, even noAv, a certain portion of the “ hearth ” is 
inaccessible to the egg gatherers, and the lucky pairs frequenting 
it rear their young in peace, so, formerly, a still wider area of 
impenetrable swamp, no doubt, formed the most eligible site on 
the island for laying in, or “ lying in,” purposes. To the spoliation 
by all kinds of four-footed vermin, as also by the larger birds of 
prey, with carrion crows and ravens, ami even rooks in dry 
seasons, they were, of course, e.xposed in days long antecedent to 
extensive game preserving. Both nestlings and eggs, under these 
combined attacks, must have disappeared in large numbers, and 
many an old bird would fall a victim to the deadly SAVoop of the 
peregrine, nothing loth to pass a day or tAvo, on its passage north- 
Avard in spring, in close vicinity to that Avell-stocked larder. 
In concluding this portion of my subject, hoAvever, I must not 
omit to mention that, Avhilst the eggs of these gulls have alone a 
marketable value at the present day, Ave have abundant evidence 
that in former times the young birds Avere taken as Avell in con- 
siderable numbers, and met a ready sale both in the jAi’ovincial 
and London markets. 
Sir Thomas BroAvne, alluding to their abundance at Horsey, 
says, “they sometimes bring them in carts to NorAvich, and sell 
them at small rates ; and the country people make use of their 
eggs for puddings whilst I have already noticed the same 
author’s remarks, that those from Scoulton Mere Avere sent to 
London. 
In the Northumberland “ Household Book,” amongst the special 
provisions for the table, Ave find, “It is thought good that seagulls 
be hadde for my Lorde’s OAvn mees, and none other, so they be 
good, and in season, at j*'- a pece, or j‘'- ob. {three halfpence) at the 
moste the same imce then given for woodcocks. 
To shoAV the extent, also, to Avhich the traffic in these nestlings 
Avas carried, I quote the folloAving, from an account of the black- 
headed gull, in “ Grave’s British Ornithology — 
