228 OUR RARER BIRDS 



or rocks. They feed greedily, and often retire to some safe 

 place to rest and digest their meal. 



The Common Tern is perhaps the most interesting at its 

 breeding-place. It gathers into colonies for this purj^ose, and 

 some of these are very large, consisting of thousands of birds. 

 I have visited many nesting-places of the Common Tern on 

 low rocks and small uninhabited islets, and less frequently 

 taken its eggs from the secluded beach of the mainland ; but 

 undoubtedly the most interesting colony is on the Feme 

 Islands — that grand " Hotel de ville " of British sea-fowl. 

 How can words be found to paint the bewitching scene ? 

 What pen can reproduce on paper the life and animation of a 

 colony of Terns ? As their island home is approached, the 

 noise of the oars in the rowlocks startle numbers of Terns 

 from the beach or the little rock pools where they were 

 swimming quietly about. These fairy-like sentinels approach 

 and flutter restlessly above us ; and as we land Terns may be 

 seen rising in dozens and scores from all parts of the island. 

 The scene now becomes excitingly beautiful — a snowstorm on 

 this bright midsummer day, when the sun is beating fiercely 

 down from a dark blue and cloudless sky. The air is densely 

 thronged with fluttering birds, and their loud wild screams 

 increase the impressiveness of the scene. Here and there, 

 amongst the luxuriant growth of sea-campion, the birds have 

 made their nests, but these are only the suburbs of the grand 

 Tern metropolis. Near the centre of the island the vegetation 

 is absent, and a bare patch of shingly ground extends for some 

 distance. This bare ground is so thickly strewn with eggs 

 that it is almost impossible to walk about without breaking 

 them. Everywhere the eye may chance to wander it discovers 

 a Tern's nest. These are little more than hollows in the 

 ground, lined with a few bits of dry grass and withered stalks 

 of the sea-campion. On approaching this city of Tern's nests 

 the birds become more clamorous, and some of the most 



