58 BRITISH’ SEA BIRDS. 
that discovery is difficult The eggs are from 
two to four in number—I have on two separate 
occasions taken clutches of the latter—but three 
may be given as the average. They vary from 
buff to grayish-brown in colour, blotched and 
spotted with various shades of darker brown and 
gray. During the hottest hours’ of the day the 
female sits but little upon them, and it is re- 
markable how quickly these shore birds will rise 
from their nests at the first sign of impending 
danger—the alarm doubtless being given by the 
male bird from the air above. ‘It is amass 
exceptional thing to see a conspicuously coloured 
bird rise from its nest in a bare situation; the eggs 
are generally coloured protectively, and resemble 
the objects around them; the presence of the 
showily attired parent would inevitably lead to 
their discovery. Early in autumn, when the young 
are strong upon the wing, the return journey to 
the winter home on the African coast begins, and 
it is during these migration journeys that the bird 
is, perhaps, most commonly observed along the 
British seaboard. 
BLACK TERN. 
Allusion may here, perhaps, be permitted to the 
Sterna nigra or Hydrochelidon nigra of ornithol- 
ogists. The Black Tern formerly bred commonly 
in our marshes and fens, but has long ceased to do 
so. The ‘Car Swallow,” as it used to be widely 
