BRITEHDIRDS 



EDITED BY H. F. WITHERBY, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. 

 ASSISTED BY W. P. PYCRAFT, A.L.S., M.B.O.U. 



Contents of Number 4, Vol. II. September 1, 1908. 



Variation in the Nests of the Arctic and Common Terns, 

 by F. B. Kirkman, b.a., oxon. (Plate III.) {Continued 

 from page ^2) .. .. .. .. .. .. Page 101 



Some Early British Ornithologists and their Works, by 

 W. H. Mullens, m.a., ll.m., m.b.o.u. III. — Christopher 

 Merrett (1614— 1695) 109 



Bird Roosts and Routes, by Bruce F. Cummings . . . . 119 



On the More Important Additions to our Knowledge of 

 British Birds since 1899, by H. F. Witherby and N. F. 

 Ticehurst. Part XIII. {continued from page 87) . . 125 



Notes : — Pied Wagtail Rearing Three Broods (E. G. B. Meade- 

 Waldo). On the British Bullfinch (Dr. Ernst Hartert): 

 How a Cuckoo Deposited her Egg (Owen Ephraim). 

 Tufted Duck in Scotland (Wm. Eagle Clarke). Stark's 

 Record of the Breeding of the Scaup-Duck at Loch 

 Leven (William Evans). The Distribution of the 

 Common Scoter in Scotland (J. A. Harvie-Brown). 

 Pallas's Sand-Grouse in Yorkshire and Kent (T. H. 

 Nelson, H. G. Alexander). Green-Backed Gallinule in 

 Norfolk (Rev. M. C. H. Bird). Abnormal Eggs of the 

 Ringed Plover (Major H. Trevelyan). Pebble Nest of 

 a Ringed Plover (Com. H. Lynes. R.N.). Lapwing's 

 Nest with Five Eggs (Col. R. H. Rattray). Solitary 

 Sandpiper and other Waders in Kent (The Duchess of 

 Bedford). A Hitherto Unrecorded Specimen of the 

 Levantine Shearwater from Kent (N. F. Ticehurst), etc. 130 



VARIATION IN THE NESTS OF THE ARCTIC 

 AND COMMON TERNS. 



BY 



F. B. KIRKMAN, b.a., oxon. 

 (Plate III.) 



(Coniinutd from -page 82.) 



At Romney Marsh I examined this summer (1908) 

 fifteen Common Terns' nests. Of these twelve were in 

 the shingle, and three on soil among herbage ; one made 

 of hchen and grass was shaded by a foxglove, and em- 

 bowered in white campion — a charming picture. Only 



