86 Mr. A. Chapman^s Rough Notes 



Avocets^ Marsh-Terns, Stilts^ and other birds overhead, a 

 single pair of strangers — small, very long-necked Gulls, 

 These I promptly knocked down, and at once recognized 

 them as Lams gelastes. Only a few days before I had re- 

 ceived a letter from Mr. Howard Saunders, especially en- 

 joining me to keep a strict look-out for "the beautiful pink- 

 breasted, slender-billed GuU.^^ I therefore at once instituted 

 a careful search on all the islands in sight, never dreaming 

 but that the five eggs and the two Gulls were related to each 

 other. However, that afternoon I was greatly surprised to 

 find another Gull's nest containing two very difi'erent eggs 

 (white ground, spotted with black and brown, like those of 

 Sterna cantiaca) , from which I also shot a female L. gelastes. 

 This time, however, there was no doubt ; for the bird, while 

 *'in articulo mortis,'^ actually laid a third egg in the water, 

 a perfectly coloured and developed specimen exactly re- 

 sembling the two in the nest. Then, to make assurance 

 doubly sure, I found, on skinning the first pair, that the 

 female contained another perfectly developed specimen of 

 this very distinct egg. Of course this placed the identity of 

 the eggs of L. gelastes beyond doubt ; it was, however, 

 equally certain that the first five eggs, which were dull 

 greenish or stone-colour faintly spotted with brown, belonged 

 to a different species. Accordingly I returned to the first- 

 named islands, and at once perceived two or three pairs of 

 small black-hooded Gulls; these had doubtless been over- 

 looked in the morning, mixed up as they were among 

 numbers of the Gull- billed Terns and other birds. They 

 would not allow approach within shot, so I was obliged 

 to risk a long chance with Avire cartridge. The bird was 

 feathered, but escaped at the moment. Two days after- 

 wards, however, on a second visit I found it lying dead, and 

 recognized it, by the black hood and strong bill, as L. melano- 

 cephalus, beyond a doubt the owner of one of the two nests. 

 These islands lay about six miles distant from the low 

 shores of the marisma, and at that distance no land whatever 

 was in sight. The " coup d'oeil " therefrom presented an 

 extraordinary scene of desolation : the only relief from the 



