264 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. viii. 



visitors coming over in a single day, for Blakeney Point 

 is troublesome to get at. My surprise was greater 

 still to see them coming over daily. Pinchin told me 

 that during the latter part of June they were even more 

 numerous. Though there are notices up requesting 

 visitors to treat the birds with consideration, that July 

 I saw people on the nesting area for five or six hours 

 on end. With no regulations to safeguard the birds the 

 watcher is helpless. During the visitors' presence on 

 the grounds, the old birds remain above and only leave 

 for the fishing waters when the place is again in peace. 

 When they eventually come back, though they bring 

 food with them, they are too late. The absence of 

 whitebait wherewith to feed the young does not explain 

 wholesale desertion of eggs either, and it takes a con- 

 siderable amount of worrying to make a Tern desert. 



My view, therefore, is that the liigh rate of mortality 

 that year was due to visitors. It is the only theory 

 I can find to explain the survival of the early hatched 

 young. Before the rush of sightseers came they had 

 attained an age when they could stand some privation. 

 It is significant that Mr. Pashley, who has been intimate 

 with the settlement since 1855, is also opposed to the 

 absence of whitebait theory. 



In conclusion, a few remarks in regard to the accom- 

 panying photographs would not be out of place. Three 

 years ago, when I made my first efforts at taking the 

 bird itself, I used only one combination of the lens, 

 in order to get a larger image at a greater distance. 

 Amongst those I then got are Figs. 2 — 7. I was working 

 at about six feet off the bird. Unfortunately my lens 

 is a short focus one. The hiding tent consisted of a 

 collapsible wooden frame, six feet long, three feet broad 

 and two feet high. Tliis was covered with a sheet of 

 tough, tightly-stretched canvas, on the top of which 

 Avere placed maram grass and sand in imitation of a 

 Psamma hummock. Inside, the ground was dug out in 

 the form of an armchair, with the camera on its tripod 



