BLACK-HEADED GULLS IN ESSEX (1899). 185 



" On landing I discovered that the colony lay on the top of 

 the saltings, by some shallow pools of brackish water, left by a 

 very high tide, and there on the edges I found the nests. These 

 were slight, loose structures composed of dead reed stalks and 

 dried Zostera marina, barely raised above the level of the saltings. 

 A few nests were somewhat more substantially built and hence 

 more elevated, but none rose to any considerable height, and I 

 saw one or two eggs in mere depressions of the ground, with no 

 nest at all. 



" There were certainly over loo birds wheeling overhead, 

 and I found without any trouble about 40 nests ; I daresay there 

 may have been 60. Some were empty, some had one egg, the 

 majority held two eggs and one nest held three. I found two 

 fine young birds, one in the shallow pools mentioned above, and 

 another in a deep cut left dry by the receding tide. I dis- 

 covered two others drowned in the pools, a calamity for whicli I 

 cannot account. 



" Neither of the young ones I found were fully fiedged, and 

 they lay perfectly still until I touched them, but upon uiy doing 

 so one of them vigorously attacked my fingers with his soft baby 

 beak. 



" Being well satisfied with the state of affairs I did not linger 

 long, and the piteous cries of the parents overhead was a further 

 inducement to be gone. 



" This is apparently only the second year in which the gulls 

 have here bred on the saltings. Formerly they built a mile 

 further inland among the reeds and rushes of the freshwater fleets 

 and ditches, where they erect very large and lofty nests, and 

 about fifty birds are breeding there this summer. Mr. Cross, the 

 tenant farmer, who owns the marshes, takes a great interest in 

 the gulls and looks well after their protection, for which all 

 Essex naturalists owe him a debt of gratitude ; besides which he 

 is a keen sportsman and naturalist, and has many rare birds 

 stuffed in his charming farm at Lee Wick, such as Brent Geese, 

 a white Reed Bunting, and a Dusky Tern." 



I paid a second visit to this guUery on July ']th, 1899, eleven 

 days later, and I have recorded in my log that there were only 

 two nests left with eggs in them. I found two more fine young 

 birds nearly fledged, but no others. The number of gulls seemed 

 to have increased, as I computed this time that there were nearly 

 200 to be seen. 



