July, 1895.] 169 



THE GUI.LS OF KILIvAI^A BAY. 



BY ROBERT WARRKN. 



Of the eight species of gulls met with in this locality, five are 

 resideut and breed — namely, the Great Blackbacked, I^esser 

 Blackbacked, Herring, Common, and Blackheaded Gulls ; 

 one, the Kittiwake, is only a summer visitor, departing after 

 the breeding season is over ; while two, the Glaucous and 

 Iceland Gulls, are irregular winter visitors, only occasionally 

 seen. 



The GrKAT B1.ACKBACKED Gui.1. {Larus marinus), the 

 largest of our native gulls, is common, but not numerous, a 

 few pairs frequenting the estuary and sands of the bay in 

 winter, while two or three pairs of non-breeding birds remain 

 about the sands during summer. 



The nearest breeding-haunt to Killala Bay is Doonbrista, 

 the pillar-like rock off Downpatrick Head, near Ballycastle (six 

 miles from Killala), where twelve or fifteen pairs have their 

 nests on the flat, grassy summit, and rear their young in 

 perfect safety, for the rock is quite inaccessible ; and strange 

 to sa}^, though perfectly safe from disturbance of any kind, 

 their numbers do not seem to increase, for about the same 

 number of breeding birds are now to be seen frequenting 

 the rock as w^ere observed thirty years ago when I first visited 

 Downpatrick Head. The next breeding-station of this gull on 

 the North Mayo coast is that on the Stags of Broadhaven, 

 fifteen or twenty miles west of Downpatrick Head, where 

 a few pairs breed on the largest of the rocks. 



The Stags of Broadhaven are situated about three miles 

 from Portacloy, and are four huge isolated rocks, the largest 

 about 300 feet in height, and give one the idea of four 

 miniature Ailsa Craigs with sharply triangular outline. A 

 peculiarity of the rocks along that coast, especially at the base 

 of the cliffs, is their broken shattered appearance and their 

 sharp and rugged points and edges, seen appearing along 

 the surface of the water when the tide is low, in some places 

 extending for many yards be3^ond the cliff's base. 



Some years ago the Great Blackbacked Gulls of this 

 locality were nearly exterminated by poison, laid by the tenant 



A 



