25 



Of the last order of birds — the Natatores or Swimming Birds — 

 brief notice must suffice. The great bulk of them are shore birds 

 only, and if driven inland by accident, are considered as stragglers. 

 The Wild Duck and the Teal rear their young with us occasionally. 

 None of the Wild Goose or Swan family, however, do so. The 

 Cormorant, Goosander, Scaup Duck, and other species, are winter 

 visitors. With one remarkable exception, we know nothing of the 

 extensive family of Gulls : I refer to the Blackheaded Gull, Larus 

 ridibundus, which of late years has become a constant visitor to 

 Ullswater. About the first week in March, when Peewits and 

 Curlews re-appear, a flock of several hundreds of these gulls makes 

 its appearance about the middle of the lower reach of the lake, 

 constantly near the same place — between Rampsbeck Cottage on 

 the one shore, and Waterside House on the other. Here their 

 courtship, I suppose, commences ; and a noisy business it is. 

 Their screaming — who first called it laughing I don't know — is 

 incessant, and their motions are uneasy. In a little time they 

 depart, the great bulk of them to a series of swampy pools on the 

 south side of Greystoke Park, where there is a gullery or nesting 

 colony. A few of the birds occasionally return to the lake shore 

 and diligently watch the mouths of the different brooks when 

 Minnows are leaving the lake to spawn. Also when the Ghost 

 Moths appear, the black-heads are very active in hawking for them 

 over the surface of meadows and pastures in a summer evening. 



Part II. 



(Read at Carlisle, 1885.^ 



During the spring and early summer of 1885, three different pairs 

 of Woodcocks were noticed during the breeding season in Gow- 

 barrow Park, Ullswater. On the whole, the belief seems to be 

 gaining ground, that more woodcocks remain with us to breed 

 than was formerly the case. Perhaps it may be that there are 

 more observers now-a-days. 



A pair of Buzzards appeared during the nesting season in the 

 locality already referred to, and undoubtedly succeeded in rearing 



