(13h. 2 
A NESTING PLACE OF LARUS FUSCUS. 
By J. W. Wiiu1s Bonn, M.A., F.L.S. 
It is usually stated that the Lesser Black-backed Gull, 
Larus fuscus, builds on rocks and cliffs near the coast. This, 
however, is not always the case, for it sometimes nests inland. 
I was travelling third class in a train on a Welsh railway one 
very wet day in the autumn of 1887, when a man who was in the 
carriage called my attention to the flooded state of a large marsh 
which was skirted by the railway. He said “I am glad I am 
not there now, gathering Gulls’ eggs.” On my asking for an 
explanation, he told me that he went there every year to get 
Gull’s eggs, and that they were very good to eat. He could not, 
however, name the particular species of Gull. The place was a 
large peat-moss through which a river flowed, and although, here 
and there, there were large channels and backwaters connected 
with the river, on the whole the place was dry, and by no 
means the sort of locality for Larus ridibundus, the Gull one 
would expect to find breeding in colonies inland. 
The following May I was again in this part of Wales, and I 
then determined to find out something about this “ Gullery.” 
On making enquiries I received very contradictory information, 
several people denying that there were any Gulls there at all, and 
asserting that the only birds that built in the marsh were Peewits 
and Curlews. Part of this marsh belongs to a nobleman who 
preserves his game strictly, and I enquired from one of his keepers. 
“Yes, there were Gulls there, a large number of them; the 
people came to gather the eggs and eat them. I was welcome to 
go and see.” He could not say what species of Gull built there, 
but he thought it was the Common Gull. So I started one day 
with a guide to see and judge for myself. 
The marsh is the remains of what must have been at some 
geologically recent period a large lake, probably about six miles 
long by about two across; a river flowing through the long way 
divides it into two unequal portions, and there are various brooks 
flowing across it into the river. It is one huge mass of peat, of 
which at different spots large quantities are dug for fuel. In 
places the surface is fairly smooth, in others it is covered with 
