JULY, 1881. 27 



with the most remarkable variety in the colouring of the 

 eggs, even in the same nest. This is quite a peculiarity 

 of the tern, and sometimes there is far greater difference 

 between the eggs of a single bird than between those of 

 different species. Late as the tern is of nesting gener- 

 ally, it seems still later this season, very few of the young 

 being more than a day old. " I found a nest with two 

 eggs and a fluffy youngster," says a skirmisher, and his 

 description is that of the bird we are seeking, so we set 

 off in search. The eggs are there lesser black-backed 

 gull but the youngster has taken warning and disap- 

 peared, only to be captured as it nestles into the corner 

 of a rock some yards away, similarly coloured to its own 

 grey fluff. Meantime the eye of a maiden, as quick as 

 it is merry, has discovered the nest of some duck under 

 a rock ; and the eggs have been already abstracted and 

 examined ere we reach the spot and endeavour to re- 

 place them in their den, far under the overhanging 

 boulder, for the eggs are within a day of hatching, and 

 they prove to be those of the sawbill (Merganser), whose 

 young have never been successfully reared in this quar- 

 ter. But oh ! those ladies. Here was another nest of a 

 gull with eggs near maturity, and they have disappeared 

 in a most mysterious manner ! 



In a pool close to the beach we find quite a mass of 

 tadpoles, late enough of appearing, and the excessive 

 restlessness of the sandpipers, and the wild anxiety of an 

 oyster-catcher, point to young ones skulking in the 

 crevices of the rocks or under some sheltering tuft. 

 Everything late this year, but as the whistle is sounding, 

 and the smoke has long been encircling our potato pot 

 in the cave, we must not be late for our welcome meal. 

 We would willingly have lolled and joked longer around 



