BIBB NOTES AND NEWS. 



85 



intervals between the attacks of its aggressors in 

 making short runs, often in the wrong direction. 

 That its nerves were very much unstrung was 

 apparent from its disgorging its food. It is possible 

 that some terns did strike the young when on the 

 ground, but I never saw them do so. The fact 

 that one day I noted a young gull running with its 

 head covered with blood, is the only evidence that 

 seemed to favour the supposition. There is no 

 doubt that some terns are more vicious than others, 

 as I found out by personal experience, one striking 

 my head with a violence that astonished me no less, 

 probably, than the solidity of my skull astonished 

 the bird, accustomed, as it was, to deal with softer 

 material. It did not repeat the exploit. The terns 

 I watched attacking young gulls may not have been 

 the boldest. On the other hand, it is quite useless 

 to take the evidence of watcher or natives on this 

 point. It is impossible, without a strong glass, to 

 see exactly what happens. 



The terns were even more unfortunate in their 

 breeding than the gulls. I doubt whether a single 

 young tern left Walney this year. During the 

 whole of my stay I found no young tern in feather, 

 and not more than a dozen in down. 



I identified three species of tern on the island, 

 the Arctic, of which there were about fifty pair, the 

 Common, about a dozen pair, and the Little, about 

 half-a-dozen pair. The only satisfactory means of 

 identification in the case of the Common and the 

 Arctic, putting aside the few dead birds I found, was 

 the beak, blood-red to the tip in the Arctic, orange- 

 red with a dusky tip in the Common. Slight dif- 

 ferences in plumage were no certain index in the 

 strong and changing light. 



I ascribe the dearth of the young terns almost 

 exclusively to the ravages of the rats among the 

 eggs. By nearly every nest I found in the sand 

 the trace of their tails and feet leading up to the 

 broken egg, which, somehow or other, they re- 

 moved to a safe spot before demolishing. The 

 Arctic terns were compelled to shift their breeding 

 grounds from one side of the gullery to the other, 

 but of course without avail. In the case of some 

 empty nests there were neither marks of rats nor 

 broken shells to explain the robbery. And I 

 strongly suspect that the eggs were taken either by 

 boys or men. This was undoubtedly so in the case 

 of the Little terns, which nested on the beach. 

 People frequently walked over their nesting site, 

 and, if no one was looking, there was nothing to 

 prevent them putting the eggs in their pockets. I 

 am informed that the eggs of the Little tern fetch 



2d. each in the market, and so they were probably 

 worth taking. 



The breeding failure of the terns is particularly 

 unfortunate. The demands of the plume market 

 are making these birds rarer every year. And the 

 rarer a bird becomes, the greater its value, and 

 the more certain its ultimate extinction. It should 

 be easy by poison to exterminate the rats, and I 

 trust the attempt will be made. 



A LINCOLNSHIRE GULL COLONY. 



A MEMBER of the Society had an opportunity last 

 spring of visiting one of the inland breeding grounds 

 of the black-headed gull, situated at Crosby, in the 

 north of Lincolnshire. This boggy and willow- 

 covered tract is, he writes, " at present an ideal 

 spot for a gullery, with its ponds and peaty tufts of 

 grass and sedge rising above and about the water, 

 but it is feared that the years of the colony are 

 numbered, owing to the steady encroachment of 

 the contiguous workings for iron ore. These 

 cuttings are gradually draining the land ponds, 

 and eventually will also disturb the peaceful retreat 

 of the birds. 



" The actual inspection of a stretch of the drier 

 part of the nesting area was a most interesting 

 sight. The number of nests must have been 

 enormous, and in some places where there was a 

 suitable patch of grass above the water, three or 

 four nests, containing two or three eggs each, 

 would be collected together in the space of a square 

 yard. The nest in no case was more than the 

 slightest depression of the surface, lined with a few 

 dried blades of grass. The eggs, as is usual in 

 the species, were very varied in colour and mark- 

 ings, although in most cases they toned wonderfully 

 well with their surroundings. The largest number 

 were almost uniformly blotched with shades of 

 brown on a green ground ; others were covered 

 with small blotches, and on others again the brown 

 was practically confined to one end of an otherwise 

 green shell. In several instances the eggs of a 

 clutch were of two distinct types of coloration. 



" It is pleasing to be able to say that the owner 

 of the ground, Sir Berkeley Sheffield, always has a 

 keeper stationed about the ponds in the breeding 

 season to prevent the birds being molested." 



The Westmeath County Council has withdrawn 

 all protection from the black-headed gull on the 

 ground that it devours the flies which should bring 

 to the surface the fish which visitors come to catch. 



