422 VERTEBRATE EAUNA OF LAKELAND 



breeding colonies has long been known as established among the 

 sandhills, or upon the rough meadows, of Walney Island. I 

 found that a few pairs had brought out their young at the 

 north end of the island in 1891, at which time a larger number 

 held possession of some of the sandy hollows at the south end 

 of Walney, in spite of the havoc caused to their progeny by the 

 attacks of their neighbours in the Ternery. The fostering care 

 bestowed upon the ancient gullery at Eavenglass has resulted in 

 the consolidation of a colony which should cheer the heart of 

 the Lord of the Manor. In Westmorland there is a nice colony 

 at Sunbiggin Tarn (where in 1891 I found young birds crouch- 

 ing in the sedge), and a second on Clibburn Moss. At Greystoke 

 there is a colony, the members of which are often called ' Black- 

 headed Crows ' in the neighbourhood. An offshoot of this colony 

 exists at Newton Keigny. 



I have never known any of these birds to nest near Alston, but 

 there are colonies on Denton Fell and Bolton Fell. A few birds 

 likewise breed on a small moss near Castlesteads. Solway Flow 

 has long been a great resort of this small Gull, but the numbers 

 that used to nest there have become much reduced in conse- 

 quence of their nests being so systematically harried that the 

 poor birds could get no peace. Great numbers always breed on 

 Bowness moss, building in the heather. The islands on Salta 

 moss are utilised by a colony of Black-headed Gulls, which 

 are locally known as ' Chir-maws.' Of all our gulleries, no one 

 is inferior in interest to that which occupies a few acres of 

 water, half choked with grass and bog-bean, at Moorthwaite, 

 near Wigton. As recently as 1889,1 considered this to be numeri- 

 cally the strongest gullery in north-west England, a fact that is 

 remarkable because it has no pedigree. It was only founded in 

 1878 by four pairs of birds. In 1879 thirty pairs of Gulls 

 nested there. Ten years later I calculated that a thousand pairs 

 bred there. Certainly it was an extraordinary sight to witness. 

 Many hundreds could at any time be seen hovering in a white 

 cloud over their nests. The surface of the tarn stretched out 

 before us like a white sheet, so closely were the resting birds 

 massed together ; several hundreds formed a white patch on the 

 dark surface of a neighbouring field; many more were constantly 

 arriving with food for their young, gathered for miles around. 



