1908. WII.I.1AMS. — Wild Bird Protection 171 Co» Dtiblin, 121 



at the other. Some were remarkably dark and rich in both 

 ground colour and markings. 



We picked up three dead birds, one young Arctic and two 

 young Common Terns. One appeared to have been killed by 

 a peck on the side of its head. 



It was ver}^ pleasant to notice the confidence with which the 

 birds as we passed hovered in dozens with outstretched white 

 wings and settled down again on their nests about twent5^-five 

 yards from us. One curious habit we remarked, all would 

 suddenly rise off the ground, flying in a long white wave, and 

 would cease to make au}^ noise for a few moments, then the 

 screaming recommenced. This movement was repeated several 

 times. After passing through the nests we turned out on the 

 bare sandy shore and close to high water mark a colonj^of the 

 I^esser Terns had placed their nests on the bare sand without 

 concealment of any kind whatever, depending altogether on 

 the protective colouring of their eggs with their surroundings, 

 to avoid discover}^ Here we examined about twenty nests, 

 but those beautiful little birds nested in other different parts 

 of the sandbank, for on walking across a low-ljing part of the 

 shore to where an unusuall}^ high tide had left a fringe of 

 debris, we found about a dozen eggs of the Lesser and Common 

 Terns, where thej^ had been washed up by the tide and driven 

 into a bend of the shore. In another place, half covered in 

 sand, we got some more as well as eggs of the Ringed Plover. 

 Probably the recent very heavy rain had the effect in conjunc- 

 tion with an unusually high tide of raising the water over 

 some low- lying sandbanks where the birds had incautiousl}^ 

 placed their nests. We were unable to distinguish between 

 the Common and Arctic Terns owing to the birds keeping so 

 much between us and the sun. I roughly jotted down the 

 contents of each nest that came under observation, but I am 

 sure we missed many. 



Nests of the Common and Arctic Terns, . 211 



Number of eggs examined, . . . 338 



Young birds observed, . . • .28 



Dead birds found, . . . • • 3 



Some of the nests contained one ^g'g and one young bird, 



and in some cases we found young birds that had just left the 



^%Z, their down matted together with red yolk, and we were 



puzzled as to how the tiny creatures got rid of this sticky matter. 



