BREEDING COLONIES OF THE BLACK-HEADED GULL 8i 



of no record of this gullery prior to my first visit to the loch, 

 on 3rd May 1886, when I estimated the colony at about 250 

 pairs. In May 1889 they appeared to be distinctly more 

 numerous. Writing in the Scottish Naturalist for October 

 1891 (p. 165) Lt.-Col. Duthie described the scene at the 

 loch side "when thousands of the Black-headed Gulls rise 

 from their nests in the reeds, and from the water." The 

 colony (unnamed) is also described in Oswin Lees' book. 

 Among British Birds in their Nesting Haunts^ part iii. In May 

 1897 it was still an extensive and populous gullery. Like 

 other colonies, however, it has its ups and downs, and on 

 14th May 1905 Mr Raeburn could see only about a dozen 

 pairs at the loch ; but I imagine this was merely a passing 

 phase, due perhaps to the nests having just been robbed, 

 for on 20th May I saw quite a number of Gulls about Doune 

 and at Loch Watston. My latest information is to the 

 effect that the colony has increased greatly during recent 

 years. " I am quite certain," writes Mr N. Nicolson, game- 

 keeper, Doune Lodge, "you could count 1000 Gulls about 

 the loch in the nesting season as all the marsh ground, 

 which is of big extent, is literally white with them, and their 

 nests are by the hundreds" {in lit. 12. iii., 20). 



Fife and Kinross. 



There does not appear to have been any gullery in Fife 

 during recent years, though cases of nesting at Otterston 

 (over ten years ago) and Kilconquhar Loch (a single nest in 

 1919) have been reported to me. In his list of birds, 

 contributed to Beveridge's history of " Culross and Tulli- 

 allan," 1885, Mr J. J. Dalgleish states that a colony of Black- 

 headed Gulls formerly bred on an island, now submerged, 

 on the larger loch at Tulliallan. In Kinross-shire, however, 

 there are at the present time two gulleries, as under: 



St Serf^s Island, Loch Leven. Sibbald in his History of 

 Fife and Kinross, 17 10, mentions among the water-fowl that 

 haunt Loch Leven " Sundry gulls." Pennant visited the 

 loch in 1769, and in his Tour in Scotland (2nd ed. 1772, p. 68) 

 there occurs this passage : " The birds that breed on the 

 10 1 AND 102 L 



