88 Forty-four Days' Nesting in Andalucia. 



Sterna anqlica. 



Common. The nests are robbed by the natives almost daily 

 and the wretched birds are continually forced to change their 

 breeding-places, which are generally on a dry spot on the 

 marisma. At one place I saw quite a hundred single eggs 

 dropped on the bare ground without the slightest attempt at 

 a nest. Tiie eggs are three in number, if you are lucky 

 enough to find a full set. I often found those of the Gull- 

 billed Tern in nests of tlie Slender-billed Gull, which at first 

 led me to believe that the Terns sometimes constructed nests 

 for themselves. 



Hydrochelidon hybrida. 



This, to my mind the most graceful of all the European 

 Terns, was exceedingly common, breeding in large numbers 

 on the wet marisma. The nests are a mass of dead reeds 

 floating on the water, two feet deep, and placed in growing 

 rushes. They are just like those of Grebes, with the centre 

 hollowed out and a few green rushes added. Laying com- 

 menced about April 30th, as we found a few nests on that 

 day with one and two eggs ; on May 3rd any number, mostly 

 containing three eggs. I never saw one of these birds splash 

 into the water when feeding in the w^ay that the Little, 

 Common, and Arctic Terns so frequently do, the food being 

 taken from the surface. 



Hydhochelidon nigra. 



Numerous, breeding in much the same situations as 

 H. liybridu, but in much shallower water ; the nests were 

 smallei-, rather better made, and often fixed to a lump of 

 mud or cow-dung which nearly reached the surface of the 

 water. On May 13th numbers of them contained slightly 

 incubated eggs. 



Lahus gelastes. 



The Slender-billed Gulls are not common, and are in a 

 fair way to be driven oft" the marisma if the present perse- 

 cution goes on. They breed in small colonies, or some- 

 times singly, along with Gull-billed Terns. On April 30th 

 I found six nests, each containing one egg; a few days 

 later not a bird was to be seen, the egg-gatherers had driven 



