256 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA. 



We had the good fortune to see and hear a 

 Roseate Tern two or three times over. Its note 

 is very similar to that of a Corncrake in harshness, 

 and easily distinguished from those of the other 

 Terns. I tried to watch the bird to the ground, 

 both with my binoculars and with the unaided 

 eye, thinking I might then be able to trace it 

 to its eggs, if it had any, but in vain ; it was 

 always lost in the ever-changing, swooping, swirl- 

 ing throng of white-winged creatures, and I was 

 obliged to give up the quest. 



On the Inner Wide Opens a great number of 

 Common and Arctic Terns breed, and within two 

 or three feet of their eggs we found clutches 

 belonging to Oyster- catchers and Ringed Plover. 

 Whilst on this island, I narrowly escaped having 

 my cap knocked off my head by an angry Tern, 

 which swept down upon me again and again 

 with a loud scream, because I apprqached its nest, 

 situated amongst some sea campion, too closely. 



When fishing for their prey Terns always plunge 

 into the sea head to wind. I noticed that upon 

 arriving at their breeding station, if they were 

 unable to discover their own offspring amongst the 

 crowd, running about like a flock of miniature 

 sheep, they rose again and flew away with the 

 tit-bit they had brought in their bills. Curiously 

 enough, whilst sitting at the end of St. Cuthbert's 

 little church, I could always see more birds flying 

 away from the Tern-inhabited islands with food in 

 their bills than to them. The watchers told me 

 that they had often been struck by the same strange 

 fact, and concluded that the birds were flying away 

 to escape robbery by their neighbours, an ever- 

 clamorous crowd of which are continually hanging 

 about over the islands. 



