Vol. XV 



^■"1 Camera Craft Notes-. 



think, are the White-faced Ternlets (Sternula nereis), which nest 

 on the sun-wamied beach. Among soft sand, and a mosaic of 

 shells, mostly broken, and pebbles, the Ternlets rear their broods. 

 Two eggs form the clutch, but rarely a set of three is found. The 

 ground colour of the eggs is stone-grey, with blotches of umber 

 and dark grey, and they harmonize with their environment so 

 well that it is difficult to find them. The nest is a slight hollow 

 in the sand, such as one might form by a few scoops with a 

 teaspoon. 



The young Ternlets, like the eggs of the species, are protectively 

 coloured, the down being yellowish- white. When only a few 

 days old they are easily captured, often enough crouching quietly 

 in the nest, and making no attempt to escape. When the 

 feathers are sprouting, however, the little Ternlets are more 

 active, and my patience was tried in obtaining the accompanying 

 photograph. Time after time the chick darted away, and ran 

 swiftly over the beach, generally towards the sea. 



In November. 1914, with other members of the Bird Observers' 

 Club. I visited Mud Island, and obtained some glimpses of the 

 home life of Stermila nereis. Walking round the islet in the 

 early afternoon, we rounded a little headland, to see scores of 

 the Ternlets flying excitedly above a long strip of beach, between 

 high tide mark and the scrub. There lay the rookery, right before 

 us, without a doubt. But six pairs of keen eyes searched the 

 beach in vain for some minutes. Then a nest was found, with the 

 footprint of a blundering boot within a few inches of the two eggs. 

 Somebody had walked over the nest without seeing it. How- 

 ever, the rookery was fairly compact, and nearly a score of nests, 

 containing either eggs or chicks, was discovered in less than half 

 an hour. Most of the eggs were heavily incubated, and one nest 

 held a day-old chick and an addled egg. In another was a dead 

 nestling and a living one ; the former had evidently been crushed — 

 I fear, by a man's foot. 



The rookery itself was sufficiently interesting, but, after 

 exposing a number of plates, I packed up the camera and devoted 

 my eyes to the birds in the air. There was no hope of obtaining 

 a photograph of an adult Ternlet, for none of the birds alighted 

 on the beach for even a second. Over our heads they hovered 

 and flew, like a flock of big white butterflies. Sunhght gleamed 

 on their plumage, and the lucent blue of the sky seemed to 

 flow around their forms. It was a marvellous picture of wild 

 beauty ; one could not soon tire of watching the evolutions of 

 that flock of agitated birds. Their cries came faintly to our 

 ears — little quivering shafts of sound, in which were blended the 

 tones of anger and solicitude. Some of the Ternlets carried food 

 — minute fishes, whose silvery bodies also gleamed in the sun. 

 At times a bird would dive down, with the same motion as if it 

 were entering the sea, but curve upward again within a yard of 

 the beach, and rejoin the company in the sky. 



It is a pleasure to reflect that Mud Island is sanctuary for the 



