Sentence:  You'll excuse me, sir, but as you are fresh, take care to avoid the <WSD>gulls</WSD>; they fly about here in large flocks, I assure you, and do no little mischief at times." "I never understood that <WSD>gulls</WSD> were birds of prey," said I.—"Only in Oxford, sir; and here, I assure you, they bite like hawks, and pick many a poor young gentleman as bare before his three years are expired, as the crows would a dead sheep upon a common. ..." 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A swindler or trickster.