VOL. xm.] ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 267 



According to figures supplied to Mr. Robert Gurney by the 

 agent of the estate, the number of eggs taken during the 

 spring of 1919 had been 6,640, as against 6,888 in 1918, which 

 is up to the average of recent years, but not above it. In 

 i860 it would appear from a memorandum of my father's, 

 made after a visit to this Gullery, that the total picked up 

 was in round numbers 16,000. 



While we may accept all this, the figures offered by Richard 

 Lubbock, when writing in 1844 or 1845, are much less easy to 

 credit. The then keeper of the mere told him that at that 

 time an average season at Scoulton would produce more 

 than 30,000 eggs, and that in 1839 or thereabouts no less 

 than 44,000 had been taken.* These are statements which 

 have been copied, without challenge, and the question is, 

 are they credible ? 



It is true that Lubbock, when he says " the Gulls are 

 indeed in myriads," uses an expression which would not be 

 applicable now, and which implies that they were once much 

 more numerous. If they were so, it can only be explained 

 by supposing the unplanted part of the island, which is their 

 breeding area, to have been much larger in 1839 than it is 

 at the present time. The Rev. William Whitear, who was 

 at Scoulton on May 17th, 1819, describes the island as prin- 

 cipally covered with reeds, f but it is a tangle of alder bushes 

 now. J 



Common Gull {Larus canus). 

 Herring-Gull {L. argentatus). 



On July 15th a flock of about fifty Common Gulls passed 

 over Northrepps, flying directly against the wind, which 

 was N.N.W. This species is fairly abundant, but less 

 numerous than L. argentatus. The small number of both 

 which can be detected off Cromer in the spring and summer 

 is as nothing compared to what are to be seen in autumn. 

 When October comes round, there is a steady passage of 

 GuUs — sometimes running into thousands — for the most 

 part Herring-Gulls and Lesser Black-backs, and always in a 

 direction against the wind. This does not appear to be a 

 migration, but simply a movement of convenience, it being 

 easier for the Gulls to go against the wind than with it, and 

 as they cannot sit on the water all day, they must be on 



* Lubbock's Fauna of Norfolk (Southwell's edition, p. 172.) 

 t Norwich Naturalists' Trans., III., 249. 



J There is a complete list of all the British Gulleries of this species 

 in the new number of The Norwich Naturalists' Transactions. 



