58 BRITISH SEA BIRDS. 



that discovery is difficult. The eggs are from 

 two to four in number I have on two separate 

 occasions taken clutches of the latter but three 

 may be given as the average. They vary from 

 buff to grayish - brown in colour, blotched and 

 spotted with various shades of darker brown and 

 gray. During the hottest hours of the day the 

 female sits but little upon them, and it is re- 

 markable how quickly these shore birds will rise 

 from their nests at the first sign of impending 

 danger the alarm doubtless being given by the 

 male bird from the air above. It is a most 

 exceptional thing to see a conspicuously coloured 

 bird rise from its nest in a bare situation ; the eggs 

 are generally coloured protectively, and resemble 

 the objects around them ; the presence of the 

 showily attired parent would inevitably lead to 

 their discovery. Early in autumn, when the young 

 are strong upon the wing, the return journey to 

 the winter home on the African coast begins, and 

 it is during these migration journeys that the bird 

 is, perhaps, most commonly observed along the 

 British seaboard. 



BLACK TERN. 



Allusion may here, perhaps, be permitted to the 

 Sterna nigra or Hydrochelidon nigra of ornithol- 

 ogists. The Black Tern formerly bred commonly 

 in our marshes and fens, but has long ceased to do 

 so. The "Car Swallow," as it used to be widely 



