The Bird Book 



colony was found ; the next business was to find 

 the nests or rather the eggs, for the nesting 

 materials are of the slightest, and the way in 

 which these eggs match their stony surroundings 

 must be seen to be appreciated. When the first, 

 containing three eggs, had been discovered, our 

 eyes knew instinctively what to look for, and 

 before long we found perhaps a dozen. Clutches 

 of two and three eggs appeared equally plentiful, 

 and while in some cases they were laid in a slight 

 hollow of the shingle without any attempt at a 

 nest, in others a few bits of broken shell had 

 been collected, and some birds had even gathered 

 pieces of driftwood. The eggs were greyish 

 stone colour, with black spots scattered more or 

 less evenly all over, and were distinctly marked 

 with underlying grey blotches. The ground 

 colour is, however, subject to much variation, 

 being sometimes a clay-brown, and the spots 

 occasionally form a zone round the egg. 



During the search and the process of photo- 

 graphing some of the eggs, the parent birds 

 hovered overhead, uttering their peculiarly sharp, 

 angry cries, and the most casual glance was 

 sufficient to show the difference between these 

 birds and their larger relations the Common Tern. 

 It is scarcely possible not to be struck with the 

 quickness and agility of their motions, and before 

 we left an interesting incident occurred, which 

 fully called it into play. The nests were for the 

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