DORSET GULLERIES. 85 



one. On June 18th, 1919, I only saw about 30 pairs nesting 

 there; but I was told that in spite of protection many of the 

 eggs had that year been robbed, so possibly a large 

 proportion of the birds had in consequence been driven to 

 nest elsewhere. This pond is an ideal spot for the birds, 

 there being a certain amount of open water, large tufts of 

 rushes for the nests, swampy spots, and a thicket of large 

 sallows; and, if the spoilers can be kept away, the breeding 

 birds will probably soon increase again to something like 

 their former numbers. 



III. N.W. of the Rempstone Heath colony, and no doubt an 

 offshoot from it, is what we may call the Arne colony. The 

 main establishment, consisting, when I saw it in 1919, of 

 perhaps 800 pairs, is situated out in the spartina grass about 

 half-a-mile S.W. of Round Island. Many others also nest 

 nearer to Grip Heath and along the shore of Arne Bay; and 

 in 1919 there were about 150 pairs at Patchin's Point. The 

 birds however seem somewhat unsettled, and continually 

 shift their stations, a high tide sometimes flooding out parts 

 of a colony. A part of the Arne or Rempstone colony 

 seems on one occasion to have shifted to Hartlancl Moor, 

 a little to the S.W., where, in May, 1918, about 150 pairs 

 were said to be nesting. These however had their eggs 

 plundered, and moved elsewhere, and when I visited the 

 spot on June 24th, 1919, only one pair was breeding there. 



IV. The next colony is to the N.W. of Wareham, on 

 Morden Heath. *I have never visited this, but it is probably 

 also an offshoot of the colonies further east, and, from the 

 evidence I have received, appears to have started some- 

 where about the year 1908. The numbers vary from time 

 to time, but when at full strength there are perhaps over 500 

 pairs, breeding for the most part on the Old Decoy Pond 

 and on another smaller pond not far distant. Several 

 correspondents have described to me their visits to these 



* Since the above was written I visited this colony with Dr. Haines, 

 on May 26th, 1921, and estimated that from 800 to 900 pairs of gulls were 

 breeding on two ponds on the heath. F.L.B. 



