136 FIELD NOTES FOR THE YEAR. 



willows ; every branch and every fork of a branch where a 

 nest can possibly be placed is occupied : this is the only 

 instance I ever met with of gulls building on bushes. The 

 stench on the island is almost insupportable : indeed it was 

 so strong that I hurried oft' again as quickly as possible : the 

 day was hot, and it actually seemed pestilential. The old 

 birds looked like a shower of drifting snow over our heads, 

 and were as noisy as a dozen village schools broken loose. 

 This was on the 2nd of June, and there were numbers of young 

 gulls recently hatched curiously marked little tortoiseshell- 

 coloured things, who tottered about the rushes, &c., without 

 the least fear of us. All other birds seemed to be kept away 

 from the lake by the gulls, excepting a few mallards, who 

 were swimming about in a state of bachelorhood, their wives 

 and families being probably in some more quiet and solitary 

 pool in the neighbouring peat mosses. When the mallards 

 rose they were so completely puzzled and " bebothered " by 

 the thousands of gulls who were darting and screaming about 

 them, that they gave up attempting to fly away, and came 

 plump down again into the water. 



Although the gulls may know each its own nest, it is diffi- 

 cult to understand how they can recognise their young ones 

 amongst the thousands of little downy things which towards 

 the end of the hatching season are floating about upon the 

 water. There is another nesting-place of the black-headed 

 gulls in the forest of Darnaway, where they have taken pos- 

 session of a small loch surrounded by trees. They usually, 

 however, like all other water-fowl, prefer establishing their 

 breeding-place on a loch situated in the open country, where 

 they can have a good view all around so as to descry the 

 approach of any enemy ; but undisturbed possession and 

 quiet have induced them to remain on the Darnaway loch, 

 although it is shut in by trees. 



June is generally the best month of the year for angling 

 in Scotland : the loch trout are by this time in good condi- 

 tion, and rise freely at the fly. The grilse also are now in 

 most of the rivers, and afford better angling than any other 

 fish, rising well, and being* strong and active when hooked. 

 There appears of late years to be a great diminishing in the 

 number of salmon in all the Scotch rivers : the fish are more 

 protected from the angler, but are caught and destroyed in so 

 many other ways by constant netting in the streams, by 

 innumerable stake-nets, bag-nets, &c., all along the coasts 



