Booth: The Birds, etc., oy Walney Island. 271 
and several smaller colonies amidst the Marram Grass and 
within the gullery, but away from the shore and shingle. 
They had evidently only just commenced to lay, as most of 
the nests contained only one or two eggs—three being seen 
in only one nest. 
The Artic Tern.—Not so numerous as the preceding 
species, and for the most part breeding separately from them. 
The largest colony was on the shingle, and one or two smaller 
ones were on the outskirts of the gullery. As with the 
Common Terns they had mostly only laid one or two eggs. 
Several of the birds of this species were bringing in small 
fish for their mates. 
The Lesser Tern.—We were delighted to find so many 
pairs of this graceful little bird present. Quite twenty nests— 
or rather depressions in the shingle—were seen along a stretch 
of half a mile along the shore. Many of these contained three 
eggs, and some appeared to be incubated, so that this bird 
would seem to breed slightly earlier than the other terns—at 
least during this cold and wet season. 
The Sandwich Tern.—We had always understood that 
there was a numerous colony of Sandwich Terns on Walney, 
but we were disappointed. We sought carefully for them, and 
it was not until our last quarter of an hour that we came across 
a single pair and discovered the nest (with a single beautiful 
egg) amongst the gulls, and not far from the shore. It is 
possible that others occurred in the vicinity, and had not 
commenced nesting, but we did not see them. It would be 
interesting to learn from some reader of the ‘Naturalist’ if the 
Sandwich Tern has really decreased to this alarming extent on 
Walney Island. 
The Roseate Tern (?)—I noticed two birds which from the 
first I felt sure belonyed to this species, both by their shape and 
flight, but they persistently kept at a much higher altitude than 
the other terns. Although I hid myself as much as possible 
under the wet and scanty cover, they disdained to descend like 
the other species. I fancied that they were not yet nesting, 
although they had evidently chosen a site from their continually 
flying around one spot—not far from the shingle. When ] 
passed the same place again just before leaving, there was this 
characteristic pair of birds over the same spot, considerably 
above the other terns, and of course the chance of hearing 
their distinctive ‘crake’ was quite out of the question at such a 
1907 August 1 
