248 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



NOTE ON THE FLOOKBUEGKE COCKLE BEDS. 



By Andrew Scott, A.L.S. 



The Eev. J. Fowler, Vicar of Cark-in-Cartmel, wlio 

 takes a very great interest in the welfare of the Flookburgh 

 fisherman, wrote to Mr. Muspratt a short time ago drawing 

 his attention to the deplorable condition of the cockle beds 

 at Flookburgh, and pointed out that for the first ten months 

 of 1909 only 439 tons were dispatched, as against 1,647 

 tons in 1907 and 1,330 in 1908. On January 6th Mr. 

 Muspratt wrote asking me to communicate with Mr. 

 Fowler and arrange to inspect the beds at an early date. 

 Special enquiries as to the damage likely to be caused to 

 the beds by the black headed gulls, and whether the number 

 of these birds have increased materially of late were to be 

 made. The weather of January proved very unfavourable 

 for a careful inspection of the extensive area worked by 

 the Flookburgh men, but as this report had to be sent in 

 some days previous to the meeting of the Scientific Sub- 

 Committee on February 9th there was no time to wait for 

 favourable days. Two visits were made, viz., on January 

 17th and January 26th. On the first date a N.W. gale 

 accompanied by heavy rain showers had to be faced. The 

 second visit was made during the intense frost that followed 

 the snowstorm of January 22nd. Although the weather 

 was unfavourable and the gulls much less numerous than 

 they would have been under more satisfactory conditions, 

 there was every evidence that they are very destructive to 

 the growing cockles. On the first visit I watched a flock 

 of about 50 birds feeding. I then examined the ground 

 and the excreta. The freshly evacuated excreta was very 

 plenliful considering the number of birds in the flock and 

 proved that they had been feeding actively. Practically 



