THE SHORE BIRDS. 



KITTIWAKE GULL. As common as the previous specimen is rare. Univers- 

 ally plentiful. 



RICHARDSON'S My father had a specimen of this bird, but unluckily 

 it was not in a land " where neither moth nor rust 

 doth corrupt," for the moths got at its plumage, and 

 now it is a ruin of its former self. 



POMATORHINE Our Vicar, the Reverend Lonsdale Formby, was 

 SKUA. riding along the shore some years ago, when he 



saw what was to him a most unusual sight, viz., 

 a black sea gull. Knowing the keen interest my 

 father took in birds, he sent to the boat house and 

 told the men there to bring their guns. Luckily 

 their expedition proved successful, and we have the 

 bird as a memento of the event. 



COMMON TERN. A regular colony of these graceful birds breed 

 in the slacks every summer. They are ruthlessly 

 slaughtered directly the season comes in by " sports- 

 men " from Wigan and Manchester.* 



SANDWICH TERN. Amongst the large flocks of the former species, 

 are always a few specimens of this bird. We have 

 two stuffed. 



ARCTIC TERN. We have a specimen in immature plumage which 

 was shot orr the shore in the summer of 1888. 



* COMMON TERN. In one of my father's Lectures on the Birds of Formby, he says : " I must not 

 forget, while still among the Gulls, the regular inhabitant of the sandhills, the sterna hit-undo, or Sea Swallow, 

 and a host of aliases. The local name of ' Shrike,' or ' Skrike,' is very applicable to its ear-piercing 

 note. I have seen many hundreds of these lovely creatures, all in the air at the same time during 

 the nesting season, striving, as I imagine, like the plovers to attract the passer-by from their nests. 

 They have approached so near to my head that I could have killed them with a stick. I once 

 saw about ten or twelve terns in hot pursuit of two lordly herons. What could have been the subject 

 of dispute I cannot even imagine, but with infinite shrieks, and constant attacks from the little 

 persecutors, the heron* rose circling higher and higher, until the terns were quite out of sight, and I 

 could only recognize the two broadwinged waders against the clear _blue sky. But I could still_ hear 

 the hoarse croak of the herons, and the angry shrieks of the attacking party. And so, like Christian, 

 in the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' I went my way and saw them no more." 



