The Zoologist— July, 1873. 8603 



Curlew. — We were informed that curlews nested on some high 

 land in the south-west of the island, but we walked over it without 

 seeing any birds, though we observed a small party of seven or 

 eight in a very restless state on the west coast. 



A few Notes on the Birds that breed on Walney Island. — On 

 the 31st of May I paid a visit to Walney Island, and the following 

 notes from my diary will, I hope, be acceptable to the readers of 

 the ' Zoologist.' I put up at a small inn close to the ferry at the 

 village or hamlet of North Scale, which is a very convenient 

 position for egging, being about three miles from the north and six 

 from the south end of the island. 



Blackheaded Gull. — On arriving at North Scale from Barrow 

 I walked to the north end, and after some little difficulty persuaded 

 the proprietor of the land on which these gulls nest to allow me, in 

 company with one of his watchers, to visit them. A description of 

 this gullery is unnecessary, as there is an excellent account of it by 

 Mr. Harting in the 'Zoologist' for August, 1864; suffice it to say 

 it was a sight to gladden the eyes of any ornithologist, and one 

 worth going any distance to see. The gulls were a full fortnight 

 earlier this year than usual, and they all, with the exception of two 

 pairs, had young ones ; and a very pretty sight it was, — nestlings of 

 various ages, from two or three hours to a fortnight old, dotted the 

 ground in all directions j some squatted in their nests, those a little 

 older tried to hide themselves by squatting as closely as possible 

 to the ground, and those still older again trusted to their legs, and 

 after running a short distance buried their heads in the grass, 

 thinking, I suppose, that if they could not see us we could not see 

 them ; meanwhile the old birds were screaming and dashing wildly 

 about our heads. As there were none but addled eggs to be taken 

 now, I procured several from the watcher, who had taken them 

 some little time before whilst fresh: these eggs vary excessively 

 both in size and ground colour. This gullery is now most jealously 

 guarded by the proprietor, who resolutely turns back everyone 

 applying to see it : he has found this course necessary in conse- 

 quence of the wholesale robbing of nests which went on year after 

 year, when any one was allowed to visit it; for six weeks this 

 spring, whilst the birds were laying, he had two men sleeping in a 

 shepherd's hut not three hundred yards from the nests, who took 



