* * * * LONDON GULLS AGAIN.
While staying in Essex I came upon the real cause, or so it seems to me, of the coming of the gulls to London. The established explanation, which most of us have endorsed, including many correspondents of The Spectator, is that they were driven to live dangerously by the extremity of the frost of 1895, and preferred London to starvation. Having dis- covered its hospitality, they " stayed put," save for the breeding interval. Hard weather certainly had and has its influence ; but the effect of local protection had perhaps greater influence than the weather. This protection, however, was itself in part due to weather, but to flood rather than frost. In a local bird protection report, privately printed at the end of last century, some account is given of the effects of the high tides and floods on bird life, and this prophecy is ventured : "It seems probable that the islands and marshes lost to the farmer may again become havens of refuge to the wild fowl." This has happened in some measure and coincided with a new strictness in preservation. Hence the great flocks of various duck as of gulls that have found a haven in and about London itself.
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