178 



GULL GROUP 



Cumberland, where it ussociatcs with tlie common tern and the black- 

 headed gull. An account of this " i^ullery " will be found in the 

 Zoologist for May 1908. In Ireland its chief haunts are on the west 

 coast in the neii,^hbourhood of Killala Bay, Mayo, where it breeds in 

 considerable numbers on a low flat mud-bank near the lake, scarcely 

 raised above the water-level. 



Here nesting takes place in May ; the nests themselves being mere 

 depressions in the ground, thinly lined with stalks of grass. The terns 

 also nest on a bare spot on a neighbouring island, and as many as one 



SOOTV TI'.KN. 



hundred and fifty nests have been counted in a single season in the 

 district. Before incubation has commenced the birds are in the habit 

 of flying above the breeding-place at such a height in the air as to be 

 almost out of sight, screaming and chasing one another in their wild 

 flight. In the Fame Islands they nest on a sloping .sand-bank leading 

 to the high ground, and in such numbers that, on an average, every 

 square yard of sand may contain a nest : owing to the more northern 

 position of these islands incubation docs not take place till well on in 

 June. In Mayo the ordinary number of eggs in a nest is said to be 

 three, whereas in the Fame Islands there is more generally only a pair ; 

 a difference attributable, perhaps, likewise, to the dificrence in latitude 

 of the two localities. The eggs, which are very hand.somely marked, 



