4 OX THE SEA-BIRDS PRESERVATION ACT, 



Now from this fact I cannot help thinking, that if the Fame 

 Island birds had fairplay, the young would have nearly all flown 

 by the beginning of August. 



A naturalist knows that we have on our coast Whimbrels and 

 Arctic Gulls by the end of July or earlier, whose nearest breeding 

 grounds are the Orkney and Shetland Islands. The Redshanks' 

 young, when not molested, can fly by the middle of July ; they 

 and the Dunlins have by that time left the moors and wastes to 

 come to the sea side. The Turnstones have come from Norway by 

 the middle of August, and by the end of the month some of the 

 young birds even from the Arctic regions have arrived. By the 

 middle of August the Spotted -Redshank has come from Lapland, 

 the Wood- Sandpiper and Green- Sandpiper from Sweden ; and 

 not only this, but by August nearly all the Curlews and Golden- 

 Plovers have left the moors, and it seems hard if these and such 

 like migratory birds may not be shot on the shores away from 

 their breeding grounds before September. Landowners would 

 hardly like not to be able to shoot Snipes, Plovers, Wild-Ducks, 

 or Teal, should they meet with them when Grouse shooting in 

 August ; or because some extensive proprietors chose to take all 

 the first Grouse eggs off their manors to set under hens, or for any 

 other purpose whatever, whereby there were nothing but cheepers 

 on the 12th of August, to have the general shooting postponed for 

 a month. 



A general close-time till September would prevent several sorts 

 of birds being procured at all in this country, some migrating 

 entirely before the end of August ; and it seems almost super- 

 fluous to mention that the sea-birds we have generally in summer 

 are almost entirely a different set from those which are with us 

 in winter. So far as the mere existence of species is concerned, 

 it is doubtful whether the total destruction or driving away of 



tare Common Tern, a yonng bird of the previous year, having the front of its head white. 

 From birds In similar plumage, which are only occasion;! ly m> t \\iili, we m:iy almost sup- 

 pone theyio not breed the first year aft' r being hatched, but that probably the immature 

 birds wander over the ocean and do not congregate with tin- breeding birds at their in-ei-d- 

 ing stations till they arrive at maturity. The circumstance was singular in tl:is respect; 

 It showed that Terns feed otherwise than by dropping on their prey from the air into 

 the water, a fact which I wan not aware of before. 



