Egy-collectinu in Asia Minor. 421 



train for Smyrna, which I reached at 4 p.m., and then drove 

 at once to Bouruabat. 



On the following day, May 16th, I revisited the salt-lagoons 

 along the coast near Smyrna. On the little island which I 

 had previously explored T found several clutches of Pratin- 

 coles' eggs [Glareolu pratincola). For a long time I could 

 discover nothing, as I looked for these eggs on the expanses 

 of sun-dried mud, on which I thought these birds were 

 accustomed to lay, and on which I saw them standing or 

 crouching with outstretched wings. At last I began to search 

 among the heathery scrub with which much of the island 

 was covered, and soon found several clutches of three richly- 

 marked eggs, always laid on the bare ground among, and 

 often quite overshadowed by, the bushy plants. Among 

 these bushes 1 also found three eggs of a Kentish Plover 

 {/Egialitis cantiana). On some banks of bare sand at the 

 water^s edge I discovered a number of Lesser Terns [Sterna 

 minuta) breeding, as well as a few Common Terns [Sterna 

 fluviatilis), and another pair of Kentish Plovers. 



Having slept in the launch that night, I visited on the 

 following morning some more salt-lagoons on a part of the 

 coast a little nearer to Smyrna. On an island in one of these 

 lagoons we found a colony of Gull-billed Terns [Sterna 

 anf/lica). These birds had not long commenced laying, for 

 although I found a good number of nests with the full clutch 

 of three eggs, there were numbers containing only one or 

 two. In most cases the eggs had been laid on the bare ground, 

 without any attempt at a nest, in small bare places among 

 the scrubby kind of heathery plants I have before spoken of. 

 On this island I found a few more Pratincoles' eggs, also 

 among the scrub, but at some distance from the Gull-billed 

 Terns' nests. On some stretches of open sand round the 

 edges of this island I found Lesser and Common Terns 

 breeding, and also took the three eggs of a pair of Oyster- 

 catchers, which I had remarked when we first landed. There 

 were a pair of Avocets [Recurvirostra avocetta) and a good 

 many Kentish Plovers on the island too, but I was unable to 

 discover where they had placed their eggs, if they had any. 



SER. VII. VOL. VI. 2g 



