252 BIRDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



both the Greater and Lesser Black-backed Gulls feed 

 largely on dead fish, and the carcases of various annuals 

 washed up on the shore, and that m the stormy weather 

 of January, 1883, there were several hundreds gorgmg 

 themselves on a quantity of bacon which had been cast 

 up on the banks of the Lune. The present species is 

 almost unknown away from the coast, and I have no 

 records of its occurrence anywhere except in the 

 immediate neighbourhood of the sea. 



BLACK-HEADED GULL. 



Larus ridibundus, Linnseus. 

 Local Names — Sea Maw, Patch or Fetch, Gov, Turnock. 



The Black-headed Gull is a common resident, and 

 frequents the coast in very large numbers from August 

 to March, retiring in the latter month to several well- 

 known breeding-places, where in colonies numbering 

 hundreds, or even thousands, of birds, it devotes the 

 remainder of the year to the rearing of its young. The 

 north end of Walney Island appears to have been 

 longest tenanted, and it is probably from hence that 

 proceeded the founders of the community which once 

 occupied the site of the town of Fleetwood, Increase 

 of population and spread of buildings drove these last 

 about the year 1833 to Pilling Moss, across the Wyre, 

 and there they flourished up to 1876, when, their breed- 

 ing-ground being effaced by the plough, they moved on 

 again to Winmarleigh Moss, where, having been pro- 

 tected by [the late] Lord Winmarleigh and Captain Bird, 

 the joint owners, they will no doubt remain for a long 

 time. On Walney many offshoots from the original 

 colony have from time to time planted themselves in 



