2 24 Among the Birds in Northern Shires. 



finally settle down to nesting duties, so that the eggs 

 are seldom laid before June, exceptionally during 

 the last few days of May. As a rule the breeding 

 season is over by August, and the bulk of the birds 

 quit the islands in the first week of September. In 

 later seasons they may not leave until the end of 

 that month, and a few in rare instances linger into 

 October. The eggs are generally laid close to the 

 water's edge, and so far as our experience extends 

 (and that is a rather wide one, for we have visited 

 colonies in many parts of the British area) no nest 

 is ever made for their reception. They are placed 

 upon the bare sand and shingle, and upon the line 

 of rubbish that marks the limit of the highest water- 

 mark. Two or three eggs are laid for a clutch, vary- 

 ing from buff to olive and pale-green in ground 

 colour, heavily spotted and blotched with brown of 

 many shades, and gray. Lastly, we have the Com- 

 mon Tern, a bird that arrives and departs at about 

 the same dates as the preceding species. We gener- 

 ally found the breeding -places of this Tern at a 

 greater distance from the water than those of the 

 Arctic Tern, amongst the grass and sea campion on 

 the higher parts of the island. As our boat ap- 

 proaches the nursery of this Tern, numbers of birds 

 may be seen squatting on the beach or swimming about 

 in the rock pools. These are the first to take alarm, 

 and as we finally land others rise from the island^ 



