928 The Zoologist— October, 18C7. 



The afternoon was fast wearing on, and baring repeatedly heard of 

 a high and partially insulated bank off the coast near Prestatyn, one 

 likely to prove a good breeding-place, we were necessitated to hasten 

 onward, having to regain our last night's quarters previously to catching 

 the evening train for Liverpool at Mostyn. On the way several more 

 stock doves were started, in all probability from nests, but no longer 

 having time to ascertain, we diverged to the shore, thence wading to 

 the northern extremity of an extensive bank of sand and shingle, the 

 surface being mostly covered by the latter. Here a pair or two of 

 oystercatchers were at once disturbed, and may have been breeding; 

 but our attention was quickly absorbed by the shrill cries of terns, 

 evidencing an intrusion upon one of their places of incubation. The 

 birds proved to be of one species only, viz. Sterna minuta, or the 

 lesser tern, a bird by no means common upon the English coasts, and 

 much scarcer upon the western than the eastern ; indeed its only 

 recorded breeding-place upon this side of the island was one upon the 

 coast of Cumberland, until the writer's discovery of its incubation off 

 the shore at the north-eastern entrance of the Menai Straits last year 

 (Zool. S. S. 100) : in that case, as in the present, the bank or sand-spit 

 is chiefly isolated from the main, running parallel to it, but only joining 

 at one end, and rarely if ever completely submerged, even at highest 

 tides. Mr. Brockholes certainly mentions a report which had reached 

 him of the common tern, or this species, having been known to breed at 

 Hoylake, and states the latter to be not infrequent between the Point of 

 Air and Rhyl; but its breeding here, though probably known to some 

 local gentry, has not hitherto been recorded, so far as the writer is 

 aware. A second station is now verified, and possibly other favoured 

 haunts of this rare and pretty sea-swallow may be found along the 

 coast of Wales. Its smaller size renders it easily distinguishable from 

 the arctic and common terns, and the eggs are not only considerably 

 less than those of the species named, but are of a much lighter 

 colour both of ground and markings, the latter being more dots or spots 

 than blotches, whilst the whole egg presents to the eye so identically 

 the shades of colouring of the surrounding sand and pebbles, that the 

 most persevering scrutiny is requisite to detect the nestings. No real 

 nest is made, but a mere scooping about six inches in diameter, where 

 the shingle is not very large, is the sole receptacle. Sometimes it is 

 very partially lined by a few bits of shell, as a slight protection to the 

 eggs from excess of moisture. Of about half a dozen nestings procured 

 by us and a couple of boys bribed to assist, three contained as many 



