i66 Nesting Stu/iis of the Black-headed Gull in Yorks. 



would be a suitable case for our Wild Birds' and Eggs' 

 Protection Acts Committee to take up. 



Locker Tarn, in Wensleydalc. — This colony is mentioned 

 in ' The Birds of Yorkshire ' as having been founded about 

 1888, when a single pair of birds nested. It increased until 

 in 1902 it was composed of about 40 or 50 pairs. I have 

 not been able to get any recent information about this nesting 

 colony. Mr. R. Fortune visited it six years ago, when there 

 were about 15 pairs of birds. 



On the moors, in the north of the North Riding, there are 

 several isolated sites where, at times, a few pairs of Black- 

 headed Gulls have nested, and where possibly a permanent 

 nesting colony may be established. Prominent amongst 

 these, as Mr. Snowden suggests, is a site nearer Three Houses, 

 on Egton High Moor, and another at Wintergill, on Glaisdale 

 Moor. He also informs me that there was a thriving nesting 

 colony at North Dale, near Rosedale, until it was drained for 

 mining operations. A bird ' ringed ' at Egton was found seven 

 months later in the Azores {British Birds, Vol. VIII., p. 217). 

 East Riding. 



Skipwith Common. — This is the largest gullery still existing 

 in Yorkshire. On April 28th, 1917, I went to Skipwith with 

 Mr. F. H. Edmondson in order to make arrangements for 

 the eggs to be collected and sold at a low price to assist the 

 food supply during the submarine menace. From a note 

 made at the time, I find that the gamekeeper (J. Morris) 

 informed us that there was a decrease in the numbers, and that 

 he estimated them to be between 400 and 500 pairs, as against 

 about 800 pairs in 1916. In 1918 there was again a consider- 

 able decrease, which Morris could only account for by the 

 numbers of searchlights about, so after a preliminary round 

 of 471 eggs we decided to discontinue for that year. 



In 1919 Morris estimated the number nesting at about 

 700 pairs. Last season (1920) was a record.. Morris had 

 never seen so many gulls there previously, and after a careful 

 estimate, he calculated there were between 1200 and 1300 

 pairs nesting at Skipwith in the season. of 1920! So this 

 gullery cannot be said to have suffered by the eggs that were 

 taken for human food during two years of the war. Morris is 

 a careful and capable estimator of numbers. He calculates 

 them chiefly by the area of ground occupied by their nests 

 — which is the only reliable mctlKxl in a large gullery. 



Bubwith Ings, near North Uufficld. In 1920 about 20 

 pairs of Black-headed Gulls nested here, although I believe 

 many of the nests were drowned out by the floods. It remains 

 to be seen if il will he chosen as a regular nesting site. It is, 

 no doubt, an outcrop of the now crowded colony on Skijnvith 

 •Common, and lies two-and-a-half miles south-east from il. 



Naturalist 



