disturbance, and seek out some quieter spot. Eggs are usually laid about the 

 last week in May, a little earlier if the season is fine. The Terns do not 

 trouble themselves much about a nest, a slight depression in the sand or 

 gravel, lined with a straw or two, or perhaps a feather, is quite sufficient to 

 receive the eggs. 



I had the good fortune to discover a large colony of these birds on the Bar 

 off the Culbin Sands in Morayshire, in 1887, and to quote from my Journal : 

 'June 2nd, 1887. At ten o'clock I started to go to the Bar off the Culbin 

 Sands, and after I had crossed the sandhill and come in sight of the Bar, 

 I found that the tide would not be out for some time. I got rather tired of 

 waiting, so I determined to wade, wet or no wet. After I had progressed about 

 a hundred yards, most of the way above my knees in water, I suddenly 

 saw a Tern rise from some bent on a roundish island with steep-sloping 

 banks of gravel all round it. I thought it was a very large bird, so I 

 whipped out my glasses and looked through them. "That's a Sandwich 

 Tern," I exclaimed, "and there must be eggs there." So, regardless of wet, 

 I dashed on through the sea, often up to my waist, to the great astonish- 

 ment of some fishermen who were digging bait, and reached the Bar. There, 

 before my eyes, was the long-wished-for prize : one, two, three dozens of 

 nests of the Sandwich Tern, none of them with more than one egg, however. 

 ' The nests were mere scratches among the dried seaweed and sea-campion 

 growing down to high-water mark, some of them among the bare stones, 

 others on the sand, but none farther than four feet from high-water mark. 

 Most of the eggs were laid with the small end pointing to the middle of the 

 nest, and, curiously enough, most of the eggs were pointing with the small 

 end to the north-east, as if all the birds had been sitting with their heads 

 to the wind when they laid them. I counted thirty-two nests, and twenty 

 of them had one egg in each.' This colony, however, was not to be found 

 on my return next year, but I saw two nests on the gravel banks at the 

 mouth of the Findhorn. 



In 1895, when I visited the Fame Islands, I found two small colonies of 

 Sandwich Terns on the Wide-opens. The nests were placed on the short 

 grass between the masses of sea-campion and nettles which cover the islands, 

 they were simply scratches in the ground, with a few small bits of campion or 

 grass as lining, often without any at all. The main colony was on the adjacent 

 island, which may be reached on foot at low tide, if the ornithologist does 

 not object to a few somewhat sudden and painful falls, as the intervening 

 stretch of slimy and seaweed-covered boulders is most treacherous to walk on. 



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