BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 433 
Nesting-places of the Black-headed Gull in occupation 
IN 1908 — continued. 
Parish. 
Situation and Approximate Number of Nests. 
How long in existence, etc. 
Source of Information. 
Penpont. . 
Dhu Loch.* On an island, or floating bog, in 
centre ; and round sides of loch. About six 
hundred and fifty nests on island and one hundred 
and fifty round sides, in 1908. 
Came from Cleughhead, Durisdeer, about 1883 
H. S. G., I.vi.l908. 
S. Copland, 30. v.1908. 
RUTHWELL 
Longbridgemuir. An offshoot from the Hacks Moss 
Colony. 
J. Harkness, l.vi.l908. 
SiLNQUHAR 
Black Loch. In Town Moor, on island and sides of 
loch. Twenty-four nests in 1883 ; now about two 
hundred. 
In 1884 a few ; in season following numbers so 
increased that island was covered with nests, and 
the gulls built at the sides of the lake. 
Thos. Ballantyne, 
l.vi.l908. 
Trans. D. and G. Nat. 
Hist. Soc, November 
10th, 1888. 
TORTHORWALD . . 
Racks Moss. On Brocklehirst property. Upwards 
of two hundred nests. 
J. McRoberts, 4.vi.l908. 
The Black-headed Gulls that nest on, or in the vicinity of 
Lochar Moss, are subject to much persecution, and con- 
sequently shift from one part of the Moss to another, almost 
annually. This persecution is not so culpable as might 
seem at first thought, for a certain number of Lesser Black- 
backed Gulls nest with the smaller species, and in their 
desire to do their work thoroughly some gamekeepers have 
been known to become indiscriminate. 
Concerning a former nesting-place, Sir William Jardine 
writes in 1843 : " We possess a reedy loch which was 
for many years a haunt of these birds, but the edges 
were planted, and they left it ; ten years afterwards, and 
when the plantation had grown up, a few pairs returned, 
and in time increased to a large colony, when an artificial 
piece of water was made by damming up a narrow pass 
in an extensive muir nearly two miles distant ; thither the 
guUs resorted the following spring, leaving their ancient 
ground, and they have been increasing in numbers for some 
years past."t No locality is given, but I take it the loch 
* Till about 1736 the Dhu or Dow loch was supposed by a superstitious 
peasantry to possess the healing qualities of the Pool of Bethesda. 
t Nat. Lib., 1843, Vol. XIV., p. 295. 
EE 
