THE BLACK-HEADED GULL. 411 



As regards the birds of other kinds, Bearded Tits (Panurus hiarmicus) 

 used to be there, and the keeper has a pair shot by himself; but these have 

 now ceased to come. 



Mr. Morris says (^ British Birds/ vol. v. p. 228) that the Pochard 

 (^Anas ferind) has ^^been knov^n to breed at Scoulton Mere." 



I believe there are a few other Ducks, but nothing worthy of notice, the 

 Gulls being the chief feature. 



The various breeding-places of the Black-headed Gull are enumerated 

 in Mr. Morris's ^ British Birds / and the legend connected with the species 

 in the family of the Askews, at Pallinsburn Hall, M orthumberland, is 

 quoted. 



Mr. J. H. Gurney, Jun., calls the one at Scoulton *^^the largest guUery 

 of its kind in England," and remarks that ^Hhere is another, much smaller 

 and more recent, at Hoveton Broad, in Norfolk. It is divided into four 

 little colonies, which in 1872 barely numbered 400 birds. The owner, 

 Mr, Blofield, started with sixteen pairs, which were supposed to have come 

 from the Martham district, and may have been the descendants of the old 

 colony at Horsey." 



Mr. Robert Gray mentions two Scottish breeding-places (' Birds of the 

 "West of Scotland,' pp. 476, 477) : — one, a marshy islet in Hairlaw Loch, near 

 Neilston Pad, consisting of about 500 to 800 pairs ; the other on the island 

 of Inchmoin, on Loch Lomond." And in the ' Birds of Ayrshire and Wig- 

 tonshire,' by Robert Gray and Thomas Anderson (pp. 52, 53), we find :— 

 " There are many breeding-stations in our district (such as Loch Doon. 

 Ayrshire), which are frequented by thousands of birds ; and as the eggs are 

 not farmed out as in England, these nurseries are seldom invaded, except by 

 mischievous boys in quest of adventure, or some prowling fox desirous 

 of giving her cubs a change of diet." 



