THE ZooLoGIst—SEPTEMBER, 1872. 3207 
terns: there they were, dashing to and fro, and hovering above 
this waste of coast, evidently greatly annoyed by my intrusion: 
they flew round in wide circles, and the air seemed alive with their 
cries, “tic, tic, kar-a-wee, kar-a-wee.” I was quite certain from 
their manner that they had young not far off, particularly as one, 
which flew in from the sea, had a small fish in its bill held cross- 
wise: a close search of the sand-hillocks for the nest was 
unsuccessful. Later in the day, from the embankment, I watched 
a tern alight on the “ fitties,” some distance within the sand- 
hillocks, about half-way between them and the embankment: on 
walking directly up to this spot, after a short search, I found the 
nestling crouched in a slight hollow amongst the thrift. As I held 
it in my hand the old bird screamed, and dashed within a few feet. 
It was a pretty little creature, apparently only just hatched; 
brownish buff, marked with streaks and spots of dark brown, and 
having pretty pink feet and tarsi. Placing it carefully back in the 
hollow, I left it to the care of its parents. Of these terns four pairs 
were undoubtedly arctic; the others belonged to the common 
species. I watched them for nearly an hour through my glass, and 
had no difficulty in identifying each species. 
Brownheaded Gull.—July 10th. These gulls are returning in 
great numbers from their breeding haunts to the neighbourhood of 
the Humber. I have this week seen young birds of the year on 
the flats. A flock of several hundreds on some fallow-land this 
morning were nearly all adults; there were, however, a few amongst 
them having the banded tail.* 
Knot.—I feel quite certain that birds which passed us on the 
4th July in the Deeps, flying towards the Long-sand, were knots. 
They were not quite near enough to speak positively. There were 
two small flocks at Spurn, on the Humber muds, on the 17th, and 
some, I was told, had been seen a week previously. Those at 
Spurn looked like young birds.t From what I have seen of our 
other shore-birds this season, I am inclined to think that knots 
have remained on the coast throughout the summer. 
Carrion Crow.—July 16th. A carrion crow, which I saw near 
* In the July number of the ‘ Zoologist’ Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., remarks, that 
this spring, both at Hoveton and Scoulton gullery, in Norfolk, he saw second-year 
birds with black-barred tails, which apparently were breeding. 
+ On the 24th I saw a small flock near the mouth of the Western Schelde, near 
Flushing. 
