136 ODD HOURS WITH NATURE 



the expanse of stones, here blackened with such 

 lichens and mosses as flourish in sea air. 



Like most ground-building birds, the terns lay 

 eggs which hint very broadly at protective coloura- 

 tion. Ranging in ground shade from a dull yellow 

 to a deep olive -green, and in the blotches from 

 a black -brown to a dirty grey, they harmonize 

 with their surroundings in a wonderfully perfect 

 fashion, despite their diversity, when placed amid 

 the lichen-spotted pebbles of the oldest of the 

 beaches. Again and again the searcher is startled 

 by the success of a deception which fails to human 

 eyes only through the formal and orderly arrange- 

 ment of the clutch, and which, it is easy to believe, 

 would effectually deceive the eyes of the maraud- 

 ing crow. Yet, though Nature seems to have 

 endowed the tern with this useful provision of 

 a protectively coloured egg, wandering over the 

 beaches one is driven to the conclusion that the 

 birds themselves have quite failed to realize their 

 advantage and, so to speak, play up to it. For 

 it appears to be the merest chance if the gg is 

 deposited in a harmonious setting. At the 

 extremity of the point there is an area of about 

 an acre of perfectly white sand, unbroken by 

 any scrap of herbage or any other object, save 

 here and there the projecting twigs of ancient 

 and buried driftwood. No more unsuitable spot 

 could be imagined for any purpose of conceal- 

 ment, yet of all the varied surfaces presented 

 by the point none is more favoured by the terns 

 than this. It is unnecessary to search for their 

 eggs here ; they stand out with the conspicuous- 



