BLACK-HEADED GULL. 595 



marshes, has led to the inevitable decrease in the number of 

 its breeding-places, some of those which existed when the 

 former editions of this work were written being now covered 

 by corn-fields, whilst one is the centre of a populous town. 

 On the other hand, the birds which have been driven from 

 their former haunts by adverse circumstances, have, in many 

 cases, met with protection and encouragement elsewhere ; and 

 altogether few marsh-frequenting species have suffered less 

 seriously than the present. 



It would be difficult to give a complete list of the colonies 

 of the Black-headed Gull in England, many of them being 

 of small importance, and of brief existence, owing to the 

 habits of the birds ; nor is it necessary to enumerate those 

 which are now things of the past.* In the southern counties 

 of England there do not appear to be any to the west of 

 Dorsetshire, in which there is a large colony near Poole. 

 Until recently there was an interesting colony in Romney 

 Marsh in Kent, but the progress of the new railway from 

 Lydd to Dungeness will, in all probability, destroy one of 

 the most picturesque and most easily observed settlements 

 in England, and one which was an especial favourite with 

 the late Mr. Gould. Nor is there any breeding-place of this 

 species known to the Editor at the present day in Essex or 

 Suffolk ; and in Norfolk some of those existent until quite 

 recent times are now pasture-land ; but two still remain 

 Hoveton and Scoulton. The former, belonging to Mr. 

 Blofield, dates from 1854, when about thirty broods were 

 hatched, and the birds being carefully protected have steadily 

 increased in numbers, especially since they were driven from 

 Rollesby Broad, and other places. The other Norfolk ' gullery ' 

 that of Scoulton Mere is probably the largest and best 

 known in the kingdom, having been described by Messrs. 

 Sheppard and Whitear, Lubbock, H. Stevenson, J. H. 

 Gurney, jun., G. Dawson Rowley, T. Southwell, and others. 

 The following is taken from the Catalogue of Norfolk and 

 Suffolk Birds by the first-named writers. 



* For some interesting remarks on past and present " Galleries," see Mr. 

 J. E. Harting in ' The Field' of 2nd and 16th February, 1884. 



