LINCOLNSHIRE GULLERIES. 



141 



shortly afterwards became extinct. I have learnt from reliable 

 sources that when, about the middle of last century, Twigmoor 

 was planted with trees and the small natural ponds converted 

 into a considerable lake by the ioresters of the late Sir John 

 Nelthorpe, Bart., the Manton Gulls, being much persecuted in 

 the nesting season, migrated to Twigmoor, and have now, owing 

 to careful protection, grown into a mighty host. 



I have on three occasions visited this gullery, which for 

 beauty of situation can hardly be surpassed. The birds for the 

 most part inhabit a large sheet of shallow water, surrounded by 

 birch and coniferous trees, the ground rising picturesquely on 

 the east side. Another smaller but densely packed colony in- 

 habits a pond close to the main lake. In June the plantations 

 are ablaze with rhododendrons, and the scent of the " sweet- 

 gale " embalms the air. On approaching the colony the ever- 

 watchful flying sentinels sound the alarm, and the intruder finds 

 himself in the midst of a vast multitude of whirling white wings, 

 and is almost deafened by the wild chorus of shrieking, chatter- 

 ing, laughing cries. The eggs are laid in very scanty nests on 

 projecting spits of peaty soil, or in more substantial nests among 

 the beds of reeds and rushes which surround the lake, some of 

 the birds even building on the branches of fir-trees overhanging 

 the water. Early in March the birds begin to arrive, and 

 reconnoitre their breeding quarters, but in early spring most of 

 their time is spent in following the ploughmen in the fields for 

 many miles around the gullery, and scrambling and quarrelling 

 for the worms and grubs laid bare by the ploughshare. The time 

 for egg-laying varies somewhat according to the weather, but 

 the first eggs are usually laid during the first half of April, the 

 young appearing in numbers in the middle of May. As soon as 

 the young can fly they are taken away to the coast by their 

 parents, and by the end of July all the vast concourse have left 

 for the Humber mud-flats and other maritime haunts, not to 

 appear again in force until the following March. I once tried to 

 make a rough estimate of the number of Gulls breeding in this 

 famous colony, and set it down at five thousand pairs, but 

 counting being a sheer impossibility, my figures may have been 

 very wide of the mark in either direction. Moorhens, Coots, 

 Little Grebes, a pair or two of Mallard and Teal, and several 



