232 BRITISH BIRDS. 



for five years, and this has been done by the Cumberland 

 County Council. Two or three considerations influenced 

 the " experts " in their conclusion. In the first place, in the 

 last few years, owing to the eggs being protected, there has 

 been " a vast increase in the number of the birds in the local 

 area." As a rule, throughout the country, except where 

 special watchers are appointed, the Act of 1894 relating 

 to the protection of eggs is a dead letter, but in Cumberland 

 the gulleries being few and well-known, the county police kept 

 an eye on them and made many a pohce-court case. The 

 reporters, further, could not shut their eyes to the fact that, 

 although few remains of fish were found in the stomachs of 

 the birds dissected, two Black-headed Gulls under observation 

 in an aviary, were responsible for the disappearance in one 

 night of six golden carp from a fountain, and on being tested, 

 one gulped three and tlie other two 6 in. sparling (atherine 

 smelt) at one meal. Then it was a crying grievance among 

 the Solway fishermen that a bird which, as they alleged, 

 was destructive to salmon and sea-trout fry, and had become 

 unduly numerous, should continue to be favoured with special 

 protection, and as this grievance could be allayed without 

 inflicting cruelty on the bird, or endangering the existence 

 of the species in the remotest degree, Messrs. Thorpe and 

 Hope seem to have arrived at a very reasonable and judicious 

 conclusion. At the present time the Lune Fishery Board 

 is proposing to go a good deal further, and is approaching the 

 neighbouring county councils with a view to the Black-headed 

 and Herring-Gulls being struck off the Schedule of the Act 

 of 1881. T. Harrison. 



[We are still of opinion that our remarks were fully 

 justified. The deductions drawn from the Gulls which 

 swallowed " sparling" in an aviary are valueless as evidence. 

 The fishermen believed, and still believe, these birds to be 

 injurious : the " experts " showed they were not, but all 

 the same the award — a verdict of guilty — was brought in, 

 apparently because the fishermen demanded it ! The verdict 

 was not in accordance with the evidence, and no penalty should 

 have been inflicted. — Eds.] 



NESTING OF THE LESSER TERN IN THE OUTER 



HEBRIDES. 



I AM unable to say positively that North Uist is not " the most 

 north-westerly point at which the Lesser Tern has been 

 found breeding," because I did not actually find the eggs, 

 but when visiting the island of Lewis last June I came upon 



