74 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



colony is a very unstable one as regards numbers. I first 

 heard of it in June 1885, and according to my informant, 

 a shepherd on the Moorfoots, it was then fairly large, " lots 

 of eggs" having been taken. In 1896 about a dozen pairs 

 put in an appearance at the beginning of the breeding 

 season ; but the eggs were persistently taken, and by the 

 middle of May the birds had practically deserted the place. 

 On 1st May 1897, Mr R. Godfrey crossed the moss without 

 seeing a single Gull. Probably owing to better protection, a 

 more prosperous period was entered on some eight or nine 

 years ago, and when I visited the guUery on 22nd May 191 5 

 the air was alive with the birds, which I estimated at some- 

 where between 200 and 300 pairs. The keeper, whom I met 

 on the moor, gave me to understand that they had been as 

 numerous for a year or two before. He was gathering the 

 eggs for the purpose of feeding young pheasants, and from 

 among the dozens in his basket he kindly allowed me to 

 select some varieties, including two pale blue unspotted 

 examples. Since then there has been a great falling off 

 in this gullery. In the beginning of June 1919 Mr 

 Raeburn could see only two or three nests, and very few 

 birds were flying about the moor. This year a few came in 

 the spring, but May saw most of them depart.^ 



AucJiencorth Moss, three or four miles south-west of 

 Penicuik. As I understand it, this moss begins at the head 

 of the Hare Burn and stretches in a southerly direction to 

 the Peeblesshire boundary, where it marches with the 

 Harlaw and Coalyburn Moors. The Gulls do not restrict 

 themselves to any one portion of the ground, though 

 naturally their preference is for the wetter parts. On a plan 

 of the farm of Auchencorth made in 1796, for a tracing of 

 which I am indebted to Mr Charles Buchanan, Penicuik 

 Estate Office, the northern part of the moor is marked " Flow 

 Moss," while across the larger southern portion are the words 

 " Maw Moss." The whole of the lands of Auchencorth are, 

 Mr Buchanan tells me, in the county of Midlothian. Maw 

 Moss is also shown in an Atlas of Scotland published in 1832, 

 a tracing from which has kindly been sent to me by Mr W. T. 



1 Mr B. Campbell tells me Black-headed Gulls occasionally try to 

 nest at Rosebery Reservoir about midway between Fala and Auchencorth. 



