The Tribe of the Sea Swallows 



merits, and again engaged the gulls, ultimately driving them 

 off and taking possession of the island. 



In the Hebrides the terns do not nest much before July. 

 On two successive seasons, during the last days of June, 

 I passed a small island where every foot is tenanted by the 

 terns during their nesting, and not more than half the 

 number of birds had arrived. Returning later, about 

 July 10, the island showed a white cloud of screaming birds 

 moving restlessly above their nests, which almost all 

 contained fresh-laid eggs. 



In one Hebridean island the Arctic terns lay their eggs 

 on a broad expanse of fine grazing ground, the grass being 

 cropped short by sheep and cattle. Here the birds do not 

 even scrape a slight hollow, but lay their eggs on the soft 

 grass. They are very zealous of these eggs, and swoop 

 viciously on any intruder, uttering short and piercing cries 

 of rage. Near here is a bog where dunlin used to nest, 

 but now the terns, and with them some black-headed gulls, 

 have taken up their quarters here, and the dunlins have gone 

 elsewhere. 



At times the Arctic tern nests on a long shingly bay, 

 near the pasture land, where the southerly swell breaks with 

 a deep booming, and where many shells, some of them 

 large and of great beauty, lie piled up at the mark of the 

 high spring tides. Here, when the sky is clear, the terns 

 leave the incubating of their eggs to the sun, and wheel 

 and fish in graceful flight, straying far from their nests, 

 but mysteriously appearing should danger threaten. I have 

 often crossed the bay at the time of their nesting and never 

 saw them actually leave their eggs unless the day was dull 

 and cold. On one such day, late in June, I was surprised 

 to see three whimbrel still lingering at the water's edge. 

 As I approached they rose and headed north-west, repeatedly 

 uttering their high twittering note, pitched in different keys. 

 Could it be that they still intended nesting in the northern 

 latitudes where they have their summer home, or were they 

 H 97 



