RENFREWSHIRE EXCURSIONS. 27 



to avoid stepping on them and destroying their contents — in 

 most cases a single egg only being laid. Describing the great 

 Norfolk "gullery" at Scoulton Mere, Mr. Stevenson says "by 

 the 1 8th of April the first eggs are laid," a date which seems to 

 agree with our own district, judging from the experience of this 

 visit. The nests are flat and of simple construction, and the eggs 

 present great variety in shape and marking. Hopes were enter- 

 tained that a photograph might be secured of the gulls rising from 

 the island, but they were prematurely scared, and a golden oppor- 

 tunity was thus lost. However, the sight of the vast multitude of 

 gulls as they rose in a mass in the sunlight was a memorable 

 one. 



The Abbey Parish of Paisley. — Many localities in this 

 extensive parish have been visited by the Society, some of them, 

 as the Gleniffer Braes and Crookston, on various occasions. Near 

 the eastern boundary of the parish stands one of the best known 

 of the remarkable trees of the county, the Darnley great maple, or 

 " Queen Mary's Tree." Occupying solitarily a good position on 

 the high road to Barrhead, adjacent to the site of Darnley Toll, 

 and sharing with many natural objects in the west a mythical 

 traditional connection with Mary Stuart, this tree attracts much 

 attention. At a height of 4 feet 10 inches the trunk measured on 

 8th March, 1892, 10 feet 5 inches, but it is now showing signs of 

 decay. A fairly spreading tree, it seems to be remarkable for the 

 area its branches cover, but this appearance it owes to the fact of 

 its being relatively a short tree for the species. This tree was one 

 of the items in the programme of the second excursion illustrative 

 of the trees of Renfrewshire. On the same occasion Househill was 

 visited. In this little policy are some fine trees and one remark- 

 able hornbeam. Hooker mentions in his British Flora 10 feet 

 as indicating the girth of trunk attained by this species (Carpinus 

 Betulus), and the example in question at 2^ feet from the ground 

 measures 9 feet (10th July, 1888), and this is the least girth that 

 its trunk presents, as it is very much broader at the base, and 

 again at 5 feet measures 15 feet 4 inches. At the last height the 

 trunk branches freely in all directions, and the tree has a fine 

 round head. The diameter of spread of branches north to south 

 proved to be 63^ feet. Other trees here which have attained to 



