500 
LARIDjE. 
sparingly. To the Rev. W. D. Fox 1 am indebted for 
the following interesting account of a bird of this spe¬ 
cies :— 
“ At Colbourne, on the Isle of Wight, a Herring Gull 
made its escape about thirty years ago from a garden 
where he had been kept a prisoner. From that time, 
however, to the present, he has returned all but daily 
to visit the place of his former captivity, though at the 
distance of six or seven miles from the part of the coast 
where they resort. Here he is regularly fed, and is so 
tame with the man who has regularly attended to his 
wants, that he will eat out of his hand, but will not 
allow any further familiarities. In the breeding-season 
he is accompanied by his mate, who will not venture to 
descend, but remains hovering and screaming over him 
whilst he is feeding below/' 
Interesting as this trait in the life of a wild sea-bird is 
in itself, it is doubly so as affording a clue by which we 
may, to a certain extent, ascertain the age to which these 
birds live. 
