BIRDS OF THE HUMBEB DISTRICT. 201 



every part of the Humber and its shores. When 

 October comes, they begin to move southward along 

 the coast, this autumnal movement being regulated 

 by the severity or mildness of the season ; with a 

 continuation of fine open weather they sometimes 

 remain to the end of November. 



A large proportion of the birds belonging to this 

 district do, sooner or later in the autumn, leave our 

 coast for some more southern station. Many, how- 

 ever, remain throughout the winter; but at this 

 season it is by no means a common species. 



There is a large and celebrated breeding-station 

 of these Gulls on Sir John Nelthorpe's estate at 

 Twigmoor, near Brigg. A Yorkshire nesting-station 

 was formerly Hornsea Mere, close to the Holderness 

 coast j but no Gulls have now bred there for some 

 years*. 



I have frequently observed these Gulls, by hun- 

 dreds together, hawking over our marshes for insects, 



* Colonel Montagu (Diet. Brit. Birds, p. 150) says : "In some 

 of the fens in Lincolnshire they are plentiful in the breeding- 

 reason, inhabiting the most swampy parts, along with Snipes, 

 Redshanks, and Ruffs, whose nests are intermixed amongst the 

 high tufts of bog-grass. The Gulls trample down the grass 

 upon the tumps, and thus form a place on which they deposit 

 their eggs, and sit isolated, each on its own little island, about a 

 foot or more above the surface of the water or swamp. Thus 

 raised from the surface, they are seen at a considerable distance, 

 and can equally observe the approach of an enemy, and conse- 

 quently are difficult to be shot." 



K 5 



