THE HEREING-GTJLL. 
365 
four years. They have built near a pond in his garden, and are 
now hatching : there were two eggs when I saw them. If 
any one approaches the nest, the bird which is not sitting imme- 
diately comes to the assistance and defence of its mate. They 
are in beautiful plumage, adult, with the exception of a little 
mottling, which remains about the flanks.” Mr. Hodder, who 
lives on the coast of Cork, opposite the islands called Beannies, 
had a pair of herring-gulls which bred and produced three or four 
young ; no eggs were laid until the fourth year. These gulls 
were kept in a yard with fowls, and their nest was made in the 
fowl-house. Soon after bringing her young to maturity, the 
female was accidentally killed. 
Mr. B. Warren, jun., of Castle Warren (county Cork), supplied 
me, in March 1850, with the following note on a herring -gull. 
“In July 1848, I brought it and two others from the Beannies 
when quite young and unable to fly. As this was the finest bird 
of the three, I never clipped its wings, but kept it in the farm- 
yard with the others and the poultry, where it remained quite 
contented, and showed no symptoms of a wish to fly away until 
the 19th of August, 1849, when a flight was taken into one of 
the neighbouring fields. It remained until the evening there, 
and then flew towards the sea, but returned next morning to be 
fed. This bird continued to go and come regularly for about a 
week, when it disappeared altogether, and I was afraid had met 
with some accident ; but on the 14th of December, I was agree- 
ably surprised by seeing it flying over the yard, and on my calling 
Jack, to which name the bird answers, it alighted on the roof of 
one of the out-houses and began crying for food. I threw it a 
bit of meat, which was instantly swallowed, and then it flew away. 
Next morning it came back, and on seeing my other gulls in the 
yard, alighted with them, and remained until dusk, when it went 
off to roost somewhere. It continued to act thus until the 23rd 
of the same month, when it took flight, and did not return until 
the 4th of January, but has continued its visits pretty regularly 
since. During the night it never remains, but flies off in the 
evening towards the sea. This bird is very tame, and will take a 
