310 Mr. A. C. Cliapmuu on the 



becomes (inito irksome. We observed also the Crested Lark 

 {Alaiida crlstata) , and on May 17tli hosts of Tree-Pipits 

 [An'hus trivialis) frequented these pLaces ; but the Latter were 

 0UI3- on migration, as a few days before this species was 

 entirely absent. Goklen Plovers and Ring-Dotterel were 

 both breeding, though sparsely, on the inland heaths, and we 

 thought we once saw a Stone-Plover. Of other inland birds, 

 the Corn-Bunting and Reed-Bunting, Partridge, Corncrake, 

 White Wagtail^ Whinchat, Greenfinch, and Brown Linnet 

 were observed. 



On the coast, where the North-Sea breakers have piled up 

 for miles a bank of sand and pebbles (interspersed with 

 which at one point were the vertebrge of a stranded Avhale), 

 vast numbers of Terns were preparing to nest, but up to 

 May 17th none had eggs. It is to be regretted that we 

 were unable satisfactorily to identify all the species, chiefly 

 from the fact that the birds, not having commenced to lay, 

 were rather wild and would not allow sufficiently near 

 approach. It was, however, easy to see that both a smoky- 

 breasted and a white-breasted Tern were very numerous, 

 and we soon secured specimens both of the Arctic and the 

 Common species. There were, moreover, many larger 

 Terns, Avith black heads and white underparts, which seemed 

 to us to vaiy in size, some being very large, and we have 

 little doubt that the Sandwich, and probably the Gull- 

 billed and Caspian, were present. These large Terns kept 

 flying up the coast, northwards, generally just outside the 

 line of breakers^ and in nearly every instance they were 

 carrying either small silvery fish or drift-weed in their bills. 

 They flew so far northward that we could not follow them to 

 their assumed nesting-places, and it was very strange and 

 amusing to watch how, while flying, they constantly dropped 

 what they were carrying, and after the fish or weed, as the 

 case might be, had fallen perhaps twenty or thirty feet, they 

 swooped after it_, caught it, and continued their flight. It 

 was no unusual thing to see one Tern perform this strange 

 feat three or four times in quick succession. The pretty 

 Little Terns {Sterna minuta) were also breeding here in con- 



