62 
Allen’s naturalist’s library. 
which, like some others, has a reed-thatched roof— an indication 
of a fenny neighbourhood. mciicaiion 
Ihe sight of the birds of Scoulton, as they rise in a dense 
mass, filling the air like snow, is certainly very beautiful Tnd 
£g".T«r.°' of voices is LJ .0“.;““ 
“ The Gulls chiefly congregate at each end of ‘ the heath ’ as 
the great island is railed, on which Scotch firs and birches grow 
If an unfortunate Heron appears, they mob him, and keep even 
“'‘o 
foot^oiKir'^ has constructed a path, called the ‘twenty- 
foot road, al round, which makes a dry and agreeable 
promenade, whence the visitor may view die islets“of the 
&c ; &c Boat-house Island, 
“ Many years ago the greater portion of Scoulton parish was 
common land, and the mere is part of the allotmLt to the 
Weyland family. Long may it flourish and protect thero 
Gulls, who probably are the oldest inhabitants, as thev are 
mentioned by Sir '^I’homas Erowne as breeding there in his 
tune ; and they may be coeval with the lake itself. The birds 
arrive some time in February. 
The keeper states that he took 6,000 eggs last season, and 
these eggs fetch one shilling per dozen. But in the time of 
MW Lubbock— as mentioned in the ‘Fauna of 
Norfolk,’ m my edition (i845)-it is said (p. 123) that an 
average season produces more than 30,000 eggs • five vears 
before that they took 44,000. ^ 
fn ■'k"’’ ‘R^™Wes of a Naturalist ’ 
Tn 1 6,000 eggs had been gathered, 
f only 4,000 were taken. This sad 
fallmg off was due to dry seasons. Brown, the keeper, told me 
that once the farmers spread the fields in the neighbourhood 
with manure sown with salt, which poisoned the worms &c 
upon which the Gulls feed, and that a great number died in 
^ ’.I 1 '■rom Stoats and 
J^-ats , he had known, on one occasion, i ro of the nestline-s 
and eggs, just chipping, to be destroyed by a Stoat.’ ” ^ 
