WAYSIDE NOTES. 455 



which I believe is rather local, but which grows on parts of 

 the Chesil Beach. The young birds hid amongst these peas, 

 with their grey backs just showing above the leaves ; they looked 

 like lai'gish grey pebbles, of which there were a good many 

 about. They kept perfectly still, so still indeed that we were 

 sometimes in danger of treading on them. Many of them I dare 

 say are trod upon in this way by the cattle which are allowed to 

 stray on the beach (I suppose to eat the wild peas, of which they 

 seem fond), for we found many remains of dead Terns (chiefly 

 adult Common Terns) ; but whether they had been trodden on by 

 the cattle, as we surmised, or were shot by someone in defiance of 

 the Wild Birds Protection Act, or had fallen victims to two Hen 

 Harriers, which we saw the next day, we could not be certain. 

 It is not unlikely that in many cases the Harriers were to blame, 

 for everything was gone except the legs, wings, head, and some- 

 times the breast-bone. 



As to eggs, we found a good many, the first discovered being 

 that of an Arctic Tern, which I tried to blow ; but it burst as soon 

 as I made a hole in it, and the smell was anything but pleasant.* 

 A clutch of three Common Terns' eggs were not so far gone, and 

 we managed to blow them successfully, though the operation was 

 by no means a pleasant one. These were in a nest on the Fleet 

 side of the Chesil Beach, just above high-water mark. The stones 

 had been scraped into a hollow, and there was a lining of dry 

 rushes and grass cut up small, with longer bents outside; these 

 had evidently been picked out of the refuse left by the tide about 

 high-water mark. Some of the nests were mere hollows formed 

 in the ridge of weed and stuff left by the tide ; others were merely 

 depressions amongst the small pebbles, without any lining. Most 

 of the nests were on the Fleet side of the Chesil beach, and low 

 down ; but some were higher up, and others on the sea side of 

 the beach. The Arctic Tern's egg we brought home was found 

 on the sea side, without much in the way of a nest. Altogether 

 we brought home four Common Terns' eggs, one Arctic Tern's 

 egg, and one doubtful one ; it is small for a Common Tern's egg, 

 but in shape and marking it is like some eggs of this species 

 which I took on the rocks to the north of Herm, in the Channel 



* To prevent an egg in this condition from bursting, it should be held 

 under water while being blown. — Ed. 



