162 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. vi. 



The story is an interesting one. In the fall of 1910, about 

 the middle of October, a dead whale was washed ashore on 

 this shtngle-spit, where it remained for three or four months 

 before being buried. By this time the smell was already 

 offensive, and rats had assembled in numbers at the 

 carcase. But the next high tides washed the whole thing 

 out again, leaving it stranded till May, 1911. The place 

 Mas no\\' swarming with rats. T\\o days Mere spent in 

 burning all that could be destroyed of the carcase by 

 this means, the rest being chopped up into small pieces and 

 re-buried. Attention was next turned to the extermination 

 of the rats. 



By this time terns were already laying. Their eggs Mere 

 good food for the rats, and almost every egg that M'as laid 

 was eaten. The M'atcher M^as no idler, hoMCver, and soon 

 countless poisoned hens' eggs Mere distributed all over the 

 spit ; traps M'ere set in large numbers, and guns Mere used 

 unceasingly, but May, and then June slipped by, and still 

 rats Mere preying on the terns' eggs. The effect was 

 startling. All over the shingle unpigmented, coloured but 

 unspotted, and misshapen eggs Mere found. The abnor- 

 malities seem to be attributable mainly to exhaustion and 

 also to the constant Morry of the birds, for the excitement 

 of a whole colony of terns, even at the approach of a single 

 strange bird, is familiar to everyone. Apparently no old 

 birds were attacked by the rats. 



This colony consists of Common and Lesser Terns onlj'. 

 No Arctic were noticed, this year at all events. 



W. Rowan. 



ON REMOVING LAPWING'S EGGS. 



In reference to Mr. N. F. Richardson's recent note on this 

 subject {supra, p. 94) the folloM'ing may prove of interest. 

 On May 9th, 1912, 1 took a clutch of perfectly fresh eggs of the 

 Lapwing {Vanellus vanellus) in a grass-field, and at almost 

 the same moment a boy who Mas Mith me, found another 

 clutch some eightj^ yards off in the same field. These he 

 brought across to me but they proved to be hard set, so I 

 decided to replace them at once. It is none too easy to find 

 a Lapwing's nest Mith eggs ; to find one Mithout eggs is far 

 harder, and all our efforts to locate the nest Mere unavailing. 

 We therefore made a slight holloM- as near as possible to 

 M'here Me thought they had been taken from, and laid the 

 eggs therein. 



