406 
THE GULL. 
from the main body to a retired crag or niche, as if to rest 
awhile in perfect silence. 
Now and then, indeed, as if by mutual consent, the uproar 
entirely ceased, and the whole body settled themselves on a 
rocky inclined plane, interspersed with grass, just below the 
light-keepers’ dwellings, which formed their grand nursery 
establishment ; for there, in every stage of growth, hundreds 
of young ones were moving about. No doubt each parent 
had a perfect knowledge of its own offspring, though, generally 
speaking, there were no signs of recognition ; for, to all ap- 
pearance, old and young seemed to mingle, without much 
reference to relationship ; and a stranger might have supposed 
there was a common property in the nestlings. The only 
sign of parental attachment was, that an old bird would 
now and then fix its eye in a more pointed manner upon 
some one of these living gray puff-balls of downy feathers, 
and then, suddenly opening its mouth, deposit at the feet of 
the fledgling a crawful of half- digested shrimps and softened 
crabs. 
We cannot quit this account of the Gulls and their 
breeding-places on the west coast of England without refer- 
ring to the history of the Laughing Gulls (Lams ridibundus), 
which annually frequent a particular spot in Norfolk. Erom 
time immemorial, these birds have frequented an island in a 
mere about thirty miles from the sea, at Woodrising, the 
property of John Weyland, Esq. It contains within its 
banks about seventy acres, nearly thirty of which are occu- 
pied by a large island, consisting of about eighteen acres of 
remarkably fine reeds (Arundo jphragmites), in great request 
for thatching ; two or three acres of broad flag, as much of 
coarse grass, mixed with a small quantity of fine sedge, and 
about sixteen in the centre, where the island is firmly 
attached to the bottom, are occupied by birch brushwood, out 
of which rise birch-trees, from thirty to forty feet in height, 
not one of which has ever been blown down by the gales, 
which often make sad havoc with the oaks and other trees. 
It is on this island chiefly that the Gulls breed, a few only 
wandering to smaller pieces of water in the neighbourhood. 
