88 Forty-four Days' JSJesting in Andalucia. 
Sterna anglica. 
Common. The nests are robbed by the natives almost daily 
and the wretched birds are continually forced to change their 
breeding-placesj which are generally on a dry spot on the 
marisma. At one place I saw quite a hundred single eggs 
dropped on the bare ground without the slightest attempt at 
a nest. The eggs are three in number, if you are lucky 
enough to find a full set. I often found those of the Gull- 
billed Tern in nests of the Slender-billed Gull, which at first 
led me to believe that the Terns sometimes constructed nests 
for themselves. 
Hydrochelidon hybrida. 
This, to my mind the most graceful of all the European 
Terns, was exceedingly common, breeding in large numbers 
on the wet marisma. The nests are a mass of dead reeds 
floating on the water, two feet deep, and placed in growing 
rushes. They are just like those of Grebes, with the centre 
hollowed out and a few green rushes added. Laying com- 
menced about April 30th, as we found a few nests on that 
day with one and two eggs ; on May 3rd any number, mostly 
containing three eggs. I never saw one of these birds splash 
into the water when feeding in the way that the Little, 
Common, and Arctic Terns so frequently do, the food being 
taken from the surface. 
HlDROCHELlDON NIGRA. 
Numerous, breeding in much the same situations as 
H. hybrida, but in much shallower water ; the nests were 
smaller, rather better made, and often fixed to a lump of 
mud or cow-dung which nearly reached the surface of the 
water. On May 13th numbers of them contained slightly 
incubated eggs. 
Larus gelastes. 
The Slender-billed Gulls are not common, and are in a 
fair way to be driven off" the marisma if the present perse- 
cution goes on. They breed in small colonies, or some- 
times singly, along with Gull-billed Terns. On April 30th 
I found six nests, each containing one eg^ ; a few^ days 
later not a bird was to be seen, the egg-gatherers had driven 
