64 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. viii. 



fascinating spot to visit, especially in June when many 

 young ones are hatched. 



On the two following days we were at Urbo where, 

 on a great plain of rough grass, marsh and shallow 

 rush-grown water. Black-tailed Godwits, Ruffs, Red- 

 shanks, Lapwings, Kentish Plovers, Black Terns and 

 other birds were nesting. 



Here Herr Schenk introduced me to a method of 

 marking birds which was quite new to me, viz. by 

 snaring the birds at the nest. I had often wished that 

 we might be able to do this because it should lead to 

 results very difficult to arrive at by other means. With 

 our present methods we are unable to obtain a sufficient 

 series of facts to show whether the laiger birds nest 

 year after year in the same place, and when and where 

 the young breed. The last point is no doubt the more 

 important as it bears directly on the question of how 

 birds become distributed, and if sufficient facts could 

 be collected by snaring and ringing combined much 

 hght might be thrown on such difficult questions as 

 range extension and the way in which birds choose 

 their breeding-places. Take, for instance, the case of 

 the Black -headed Gull, of which we have ringed many 

 thousands of young ones, unfortunately we have very 

 few records to show when and where these young ones 

 breed, and if we could snare the nesting-birds at a 

 number of colonies on a large scale we should no 

 doubt catch some of our ringed birds and thus obtain 

 some very useful facts. 



Herr Schenk has used this method successfully in 

 Lapwing, Black- tailed Godwit, Redshank, Reeve and 

 Black Tern, during the last three seasons. Most of the 

 birds so caught do not desert their nests — the same 

 Redshank, for instance, has been repeatedly caught on 

 the same nest ; some, however, desert the nest but 

 breed again in the same season, so that this would do 

 no harm in common species. 



