454 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



The Terns on the Chesil Beach are always more interesting to 

 nie than the Swans. There were a good many Terns (so far as 

 we could distinguish at the distance, chiefly Common Terns) flying 

 about and hovering over the Fleet, but afterwards, when we got 

 on the Chesil Beach, we saw many more. The seine was just 

 being hauled, and the Terns and a few Gulls had collected to pick 

 up any fish that escaped from the net, sometimes getting one or 

 two that came too near the surface inside the floats of the net. 

 They were very tame, and seemed not to mind the operation of 

 hauling the seine ; they kept a sharp look-out for an)' small fish 

 thrown back into the sea for them, and dropped upon it imme- 

 diately. As we saw some of them busily engaged in carrying 

 any small fish they got up the Chesil Beach, Weymouth way, we 

 supposed, though it was late in the year (Aug. 4th), that they still 

 had young about not able to fly or feed themselves, which 

 supposition afterwards proved to be correct. We saw both 

 Common and Arctic Terns, the former the most numerous, and 

 one or two Lesser Terns busily carrying food to the Chesil Beach. 

 They were very sharp in seeing anything in the way of food, and 

 I thought quicker on the wing than the Common Terns, and in 

 making their dash down on a small fish. They certainly appro- 

 priated a very fair share of fish, and seemed bolder in coming 

 nearer to us than the other Terns ; so that, besides the difference 

 of size, we could perfectly identify them by the marking of the 

 head and face, and the colour of the bill and legs. We could not 

 make out any Sandwich Terns, though we kept a sharp look-out 

 for them. I was sorry for this, for when I was there in May, 

 1877, I had distinctly seen a Sandwich Tern on the Chesil Beach, 

 and had a good opportunity of identifying it; and I had hoped to 

 be able to prove this time that the Sandwich Tern bred there. In 

 this, however, I was disappointed. 



The next day, Aug. 5th, we went for a walk on the Chesil Beach 

 to see whether we could find any young birds there, and in this we 

 were successful ; for we found the young in every stage from the 

 chick just out of the egg to some further advanced, but still in the 

 down, and others just growing their feathers, the most forward 

 being nearly able to fly. Those most advanced hid themselves 

 amongst the pebbles and stalks of a wild pea, Lathyrus maritimus* 



* I am indebted to Dr. Prior for identifying this plant for rne from some 

 specimens brought home. 



