THE OYSTEB CATCHES. 173 



a large, dark-grey mottled bird on our coast, which I 

 used to take for the young of the great black-backed 

 gull; this and the young of the common gull were 

 excellent eating. 



I am only certain about three terns : the large Cas- 

 pian, the common, and the black terns; and thes*e all 

 appeared exactly like the European birds. I have killed 

 another specie?, something like the roseate tern, and I 

 have heard of a smaller tern, about half the size of the 

 common tern, which I never killed. Both the common 

 and Caspian tern used to frequent our coasts, and the 

 large Caspian tern was by no means rare; I used to 

 shoot the black tern on the swamps and plains, where 

 they would come occasionally in large flocks, especially 

 in the autumn ; but I never saw them hero in the 

 summer, and our coasts afforded no suitable breeding 

 places for the other species. 



The Oyster- catcher, or Sea Magpie, as we called it, was 

 by no means rare on these coasts. It was just as noisy 

 and restless a bird as its British namesake, which it 

 appeared to resemble in all respects. 



At times, when a large shoal of small fry set into the 

 bay, hundreds of Gannet would follow them, dashing 

 down headlong into the water, exactly as we used to see 

 them on the north coasts of Britain. The gannets here 

 appeared to resemble the British bird in all respects, 

 but I fancy the chestnut on the head was darker, and 

 did not extend so far. The young birds of the year 

 are mottled, after the manner of the young gannets at 



