MAY ON THE MOORS 71 



etc., in search of which the gulls come down regularly to 

 the grass-lands far below. There, in the long summer 

 evenings, they hawk over the meadows after night-flying 

 moths until it is nearly dark. 



Not so innocent are the Black-backed Gulls [Lai'us 

 fuscus). These large and powerful birds are inveterate 

 egg-stealers. One I found floating dead in Darden lough, 

 choked with a mallard's egg; stuck fast in his gullet. 1 

 It is this species, the Lesser Blackback, that breeds 

 thousands strong on the coast, at the Fame Islands, 

 some 30 miles away ; but they also nest inland, on the 

 moors of North Tyne, to the westward of Wark, and 

 in numbers which are increasing. 



Their colonies they establish- — not alongside loughs, 

 as the black-headed gulls do — but far out on those wide, 

 flat "mosses," often a mile or two in extent, that char- 

 acterise this wild region. Here, far away from water, 

 their rudely-built nests are scattered over the moss, amid 

 bents and stunted heather. The three eggs, laid early in 

 May, are hatched before the end of that month, and 

 the down-clad young are pale grey, mottled with black 

 spots, but lacking the warmer tints of L. vidibundits. 



On the moss around, lie scattered in damning pro- 

 fusion the evidence of misdeeds. True, many of their 

 cast pellets contain nothing but fur of rabbits and rats, 

 mice, moles, and the like : others are composed of fish- 

 bones, with feathers and remains of small birds ; but a 

 truly direful proportion are crammed with egg-shells — 

 and those mostly of grouse — while broken shells lie 

 scattered broadcast. 2 Occasionally, however, a brood of 



1 This incident is quoted in Yarrell's British Birds, 4th ed., vol. iii., p. 627. 



'-' Those pellets which contain egg-shells only, are compacted with moss 



[sphagnuhi), as though the gulls had swallowed this for the express purpose. 



