264 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. viii. 



photographs (Figs. 2 — 7) demonstrate rather well the 

 inclination always to face windward. AU six photographs 

 were taken on the same morning, with a steady south- 

 west breeze blowing. For each exposure the bird was 

 scared off the nest, and snapped on her return. The 

 direction is practically constant. The camera was on 

 the same spot throughout. 



Though I have never seen the Common Terns at 

 Blakeney actually hurt a human intruder, they invariably 

 intimate their feelings by diving at his head uttering 

 their characteristic angry pirre. Half the colony usually 

 rallies round and assists in the uproar. They do not 

 hesitate to inflict injuries on smaller visitors. I have 

 seen a rabbit set on by a cloud of birds and followed 

 for a couple of hundred yards, and I have no doubt that 

 had its burrow been at a greater distance it would never 

 have survived. I have also watched a Heron being 

 chivied right over to the mainland, though it merely 

 met the Terns over their fishing waters. And yet I 

 have seen the Ringed Plover nesting in perfect peace 

 in the very centre of the colony. 



Last July I slept one night on the top of a tall sand-hill 

 overlooking the Tern Dunes. My object was to keep a 

 watch on a small colony of mice {Mus sylvaticus) I had 

 chanced to locate there the day before. It was a peace- 

 ful night, and when I rolled myself up in my blankets 

 at about 12.30 the birds were very quiet. About an 

 hour later I heard the death-cry of a yoimg Tern on the 

 edge of the settlement, probably killed by one of our 

 few remaining stoats. In an instant the whole Tern 

 settlement was in the air and concentrating on the spot. 

 In the fitful light of a clouded moon one could see them, 

 a dense surging mass, hovering in a great cloud over 

 the place. Bird after bird darted to the ground and 

 then rejoined the shrieking throng. Now to the right, 

 now to the left it swayed, rising, falling, but all the 

 time sending its hghtning bolts to earth. Then it began 

 to decrease in size as the birds returned whence thev 



