276 THE COMMON GULL. 



remains of an old woman who hanged herself, and who, 

 in the shape of a white Sea-Maw, is said to be frequently 

 seen at night — sitting on the 



"glitty stane, 

 Green wi' the dew o' the jaupin' main." 



" Cold blows the stormy wind, 



The waves are rushing loud ; 

 The moon is in the wane — 



No star looks through the cloud ; 

 High on yon bare, cold rock, 



Old Maggie sits alane ; 

 Ilk night at twal o'clock, 



She sits upon the stane." 



The Common Gull does not breed upon any part of the 

 Berwickshire coast at the present time. 



The well-known ornithologist, P. J. Selby, mentions in 

 a " Notice of the Birds observed in the neighbourhood of 

 St. Abb's Head on 18th July 1832," which was read to the 

 members of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club on the 19 th 

 of September in the same year, that " this bold headland 

 is also the great breeding station of Larus Canus, or the 

 Common Sea-Maw ; it affects the upper ledges and recesses 

 of the precipices, and was observed in great numbers, but so 

 shy as not to be approached within gunshot. The Larus rissa, 

 or Kittiwake, is also numerous, but does not breed in com- 

 pany with the other, selecting in preference the small pro- 

 jecting angles, which barely admit of room for the reception 

 of their eggs and young." ^ In a paper on " Observations 

 on the Birds observed in the neighbourhood of Cockburns- 

 path in April and those at St. Abb's Head in June 1833," 

 read to the same Club on the l7th of July 1833, Selby 

 again repeats the statement that the Common Gull then bred 

 at St. Abb's Head, for he says : " This species [the Herring 

 Gull — Larus argentatus] had not been observed during our 



1 Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. i. p. 19 



