162 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
every day, was able to make consecutive observations on the 
nesting habits of the birds. This advantage over anyone paying 
but a brief visit to the place may make my notes of some interest, 
and justify this paper. . 
The great nursery of the Terns and Black-headed Gulls, 
which it is convenient to refer to by the comprehensive term 
*“‘gullery,” is situate at the southern end of the sandhills which 
extend from Seascale south-eastward to the Ravenglass Estuary, 
where they terminate at Drigg Point. The belt of dunes is at 
that place about half a mile wide, and is bounded by the sea on 
the west, the estuary of the Irt on the east, and on the south by 
the channel which carries the combined waters of the three 
rivers to the sea. The nesting area extends for about a mile 
from Drigg Point in the direction of Seascale. The Black- 
headed Gulls nest over the whole area, but are congregated 
most thickly on the dunes near Drigg Point. The Terns breed 
as a rule in colonies, but nests of the Common Tern may be 
found all over the gullery, sometimes far from the chief colonies 
of the species. The dunes reach in places a height of from fifty 
to sixty, and, at one spot, of seventy feet. They are clothed 
with marram-grass, but between the hills are many bare, wind- 
swept stretches of sand, sometimes of an acre or more in extent. 
In places, particularly where the Gulls congregate most thickly, 
there are dense, rank growths of thistles and nettles, whose 
luxuriance in what is naturally so poor a soil is probably due to 
the droppings of the vast hordes of birds.* Here and there are 
** A radical change in the flora of other gulleries has been commented 
on. Of Pilling Moss, near Fleetwood, J. D. Banister wrote (Zool. vol. iii. 
1845, pp. 881-882) :—‘‘ For several years past it has been remarked by per- 
sons visiting and working on Pilling Moss that the herbage of a certain por- 
tion of it, much frequented by, Sea-gulls in the breeding season, had recently 
undergone, and more of it was yearly undergoing, a great and wonderful 
change..... The place chosen by these birds for their nidification is the 
most swampy that could be selected, and in its undrained state produces the 
least and poorest vegetation. Previous to its being selected by these birds 
for their breeding-ground it produced scarcely anything but a miserably 
stunted, unhealthy heath. This poor heath in the immediate vicinity of 
these birds has been almost entirely annihilated by their excrement, and in 
its place has sprung up a rich and varied vegetation, surpassing in verdure 
and luxuriance much of the cultivated land around and adjoining the Moss. 
The following are a few of the plants which have been introduced on this 
