180 The Zoologist — April, 1866. 



they had been robbed by the " navvies," and in consequence had all 

 deserted. From certain nods and winks which passed between him 

 and my guide I suspected his statement, and afterwards found that it 

 was a downright lie, for the same day he conducted a gentleman, now 

 one of my best ornithological friends, to the place where they bred, 

 and from him I learned that there were but seven nests, some with 

 young birds, and no well-marked eggs in any of them. As I afterwards 

 saw numbers of this species at the Fame Islands, I lost little by not 

 visiting this very small colony, except that I sliould have liked to verify 

 personally the statement of my predecessors that ihi-se birds on Walney 

 Islan 1 make a regular nest, whereas at the Fame Island they lay their 

 eggs on the bare ground : I fancy they use the old nests of the black- 

 headed gulls. 



Skirting the warren, and ranging along the top row of shingle, where 

 the sea-lang and drift were spread in layers, my guide soon pointed to 

 a " sparling's " nest, and I raised two eggs belonging to either the 

 arctic or common tern, numbers of which were soariugover our beads, 

 some at a great height, and the rest so mixed up with the whirling 

 crowd of gulls that it was utterly impossible to distinguish their 

 species. The air was one seething mass of birds, and their united 

 clamour precluded the possibility of distinguishing any species by its 

 peculiar call, for although we had left their breeding- ground the gulls 

 still hovered over our heads in myriads. 



Terns' eggs being of no value to me, unless 1 could distinguish the 

 species, I lelt these and at least forty or fifty more "clutches" of eggs 

 which I found the same morning. Many were outside the sandy 

 hillocks, covered with coarse grass, which skirt the shore, but still more 

 were in the hollows and " bays " between the sand hills, and among 

 the tussocks of grass. In the majority of cases there were a few 

 " bents " round the eggs, although the eggs themselves were often 

 vesting upon the bare sand or shingle ; sometimes there were some 

 seven or eight bents, almost worthy of being called a nest. In the 

 numerous sandy bays near the north end of the, island " nests" were 

 very abundant, and were often mere depressions in the sand or shingle, 

 but although I could distinguish with my glass both arctic and common 

 terns, I was unsuccessful in watching them off their eggs, and i do 

 not recollect putting a single tern off the ground the whole of that 

 day. 



Oystercatchers, or "sea-pies" were very abundant, and we also 

 found some of their nests along the top ridge of shingle, although most 



