82 



BRITISH BIRDS. 



the bare scraped depressions were to be found both among 

 the shingle and on the sand patches. ^| 



On referring to the "Manual" of the late Howard"' 

 Saunders, I find that the Arctic Tern, besides laying 

 ^' in- a depression of the sand, or on scanty herbage," 

 wiU place its eggs " on the bare rock, just out of reach of 

 the waves." Here we have, then, a fifth type, which 

 might have been represented at Walney if there had 

 been anv rocks. 



Fig. 



-Arctic Tern's Nest in high-water mark drift. 



The half-dozen nests of the Common Tern that I 

 examined at Walney, were, as already noted, of the type 

 illustrated by Fig. 1. But the late H. A. Macpherson, 

 visiting the place in 1891, has left on record, in his 

 " Faima of Lakeland," that some of these birds, building 

 on the upper beach, started a new fashion : their nests 

 being lined with rabbit bones. This innovation appears 

 to have died out, the rabbits presumably not seeing 

 their way to provide the necessary material in adequate 

 quantities. 



(To he continued.) 



