90 BRITISH BIRDS. 



pairs nested on a boggy part of the moor some few miles 

 from the river, now nearly every grass or hay field from the 

 moor to the riverside has its breeding pair. This year a pair 

 has even bred within a stone-throw of the public highway, 

 in close vicinity to a number of houses and where the tram- 

 cars pass every few minutes, and it is now a common sight 

 to see the old Redshanks perched on the gate posts and on 

 the tops of the telegraph poles. 



Walter Stewart. 



COMMON TERNS ON HOLYHEAD SKERRIES. 



I have just returned from a visit to the Skerries off Holyhead, 

 and it may interest your readers to know that we observed 

 three distinct colonies of Common Terns (Sterna fluviatilis) , 

 some fifteen to twenty pairs in each, while doubtless others 

 were overlooked. Formerly it was supposed that only Arctic 

 (S. macrura) and a few Roseate Terns (S. dougalli) bred on 

 these rocks, but the Duchess of Bedford proved last year 

 that such was not the case, and this season, having more time 

 at our disposal, we were able to locate the colonies mentioned. 

 All the eggs of both the Common and Arctic Tern were either 

 hatched or on the point of hatching, and whilst nests of the 

 former generally contained three eggs or young, we never 

 saw more than two in any nest of S. macrura that was properly 

 identified. In our experience, both at the Skerries and other 

 breeding haunts, the Arctic Tern, like the Sandwich, very 

 seldom lays more than two eggs, the Common and Lesser Tern 

 far more often three than two, the Roseate generally one, 

 sometimes two, but we have never seen three. 



Heatley Noble. 



[It is rather curious that until recently it was supposed that 

 the Tern colonies off the N.W. coast of Anglesey contained 

 no Common Terns, while in those on the N.E. and S.W. the 

 Arctic Tern was not represented. It has, however, now been 

 shown that colonies of Common Terns exist among the far 

 more numerous Arctic Terns on the Skerries, and during the 

 present season, in company with Commander Lynes, we had 

 the satisfaction of identifying a small colony of Arctic Terns 

 off the S.W. coast of Anglesey, so that both species appear to 

 be increasing their breeding range. 



With regard to the number of eggs laid by the various 

 species of Tern, my own experience agrees with that of Mr. 

 Noble in the main, except that in some localities clutches of 

 three eggs of S. cantiaca are not uncommon while in others 



