BRITISH BIRDS. 22 ^ 
towards their tips : others of the quills were partly 
afli-coloured, and partly white : the legs red. 
The Black-cap Gulls breed on the marfliy edges 
of rivers, lakes, and fens in the interior parts of 
the country. The female makes her neft among 
the reeds and ruflies, of heath or dried grafs, and 
lays three or four eggs of an olive brown colour, 
blotched over with fpots and ftreaks of dull nifty 
red. As foon as the young are able to accompany 
them, they all retire from thofe places, and return 
to the fea. 
In former times thefe birds were looked upon as 
valuable property, by the owners of fome of the 
fens and marflies in this kingdom, who, every 
autumn, caufed the little iflets or hafts, in thofe 
waftes, to be cleared of the reeds and rufties, in or- 
der properly to prepare the fpots for the reception 
of the old birds in the fpring, to which places at 
that feafon they regularly returned in great flocks 
to breed. The young ones were then highly ef- 
teemed as excellent eating, and on that account 
were caught in great numbers before they were able 
to fly. Six or feven men, equipped for this buft- 
nefs, waded through the pools, and with long 
ftaves drove them to the land, againft nets placed 
upon the fliores of thefe hafts, where they were 
eafily caught by . the hand, and put into pens ready 
prepared for their reception. The gentry alTem^ 
