84 DORSET GULLERIES. 



This is a marsh- loving species in the nesting season, the presence 

 of rushes, water and swampy tracts appearing to be indispensible, 

 and a very dry season often drives the birds from one district 

 to another. It must also be remembered that the eggs are 

 quite palatable and possess some market value under the name 

 often of " Lapwing's" eggs (hence perhaps the name " Pewitt 

 Gull"), and the Dorset colonies have from time to time, in 

 spite of attempted protection, been severely raided, this 

 process if carried to extremes alarming the birds and causing 

 them to move off in a body to safer haunts. 



A short account of the usual breeding stations may however 

 be of some interest. 



I. We will start with the colony on Littlesea, separated from 

 Studland Bay by a low range of sand hills. As already stated, 

 this appears to have been founded in 1877, and the late 

 J. C. Mansel-Pleydell, in his Birch of Dorset, states that the 

 birds were driven away by a dry summer at some date 

 previous to 1888. Exactly when they returned I do not know, 

 but I gather from correspondents that they were not there at 

 the close of the 19th century, but began to return some six 

 or seven years ago. I am informed that there was a strong 

 colony in 1917 and apparently not so many in 1918. When 

 I visited the spot on June 18th, 1919, some 60 pairs were 

 breeding among the rushes on the west side a little to the 

 south of the keeper's cottage. 



II. The next colony going westward, is that on the Duck 

 Pond on Rempstone Heath, belonging to Captain Marston, 

 R.N. of Rempstone Hall. The birds have bred here, 

 probably fairly continuously, for at least 44 years, and at 

 times the colony has been a very large one. In 1894 a visitor 

 stated that over 2,000 birds were th'ere, and another 

 observer a few years later described it as the densest colony 

 he had ever seen. The largest estimate I know of, referring 

 to the early years of the century, put the numbers at no less 

 than 2,000 pairs! Some five or six years ago the numbers 

 seem to have begun to dwindle, possibly through over- 

 crowding, and in 1918 I am told the colony was not a large 



