" British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



alarm in it. May be one reason for its loathness to abandon this particular cork 

 was the presence of a small fish, which he had captured and laid at his feet, and 

 his not wishing to renounce so good a chance of a meal. Taking up the fish to 

 examine and carefully replacing it, I had no sooner done so than my little friend 

 immediately recovered his stand on the cork. So much fearlessness and confidence 

 were enough to touch even a collector's heart, and nothing could have induced 

 me to repay them by injury." 



" The minute insects," as Mr. Booth records, " that collect in swarms over 

 the broads and swampy pools in the marshes in the east of Norfolk, prove a great 

 attraction to this species on their first arrival in that part of the county. Small 

 parties are to be met with every season, and occasionally I have watched flocks 

 of from fifty to sixty birds engaged in hawking for prey like Swifts ; at times 

 they hover over the slades and water dykes after the manner of a Kestrel, or flap 

 across the flooded portions of the hills with much the same actions as the Marsh- 

 Owl, dipping down now and then for food. On the 28th of April, 1883, with a 

 cold wind blowing from east-south-east, they were generally numerous, and a great 

 difference in the shades of the pale grey colouring of the wings was remarked, 

 some being so light that those who had never met with an opportunity of observing 

 the White-winged Black Tern [Hydrochelidon leucoptera~\ in life, might readily have 

 been mistaken as to the species. Small parties as well as single birds are often 

 seen during the summer months resorting to the Norfolk Broads, and remaining 

 for several days or even weeks in the district ; these stragglers seldom exhibit 

 perfect plumage, and are probably birds of the previous year and non-breeders." 



In his recent, very interesting work, " A History of Fowling," the Rev. H. 

 A. Macpherson states that the Tuscan Fowlers capture large numbers of Terns 

 as they pass along the coasts of Italy on their northern spring migration. " It 

 is chiefly in the month of May," he says, " that these slender and graceful birds 

 appear in the marshes of Lucca, Pisa, and other districts of Western Italy. The 

 engine employed for the capture of these birds is the ordinary clap-net, which is 

 extended on the margins of the ponds and marshes which these birds visit in 

 flocks. The birds are allured into the nets by the employment of captive individuals, 

 which are fastened to the ground. As many as thirty and even forty birds are 

 sometimes taken at a single pull of the net. The species which supplies the bulk 

 of the victims is the Black Tern ( Hydrochelidon nigra). The rarer White- winged 

 Black Tern (Hydrochelidon leucoptera), and even the Whiskered Tern (Hydrochelidon 



hybrid a) are subject to the same miserable fate Four Black Terns are 



sold as a bunch for two soldi. Many, again, are hawked about the streets in a 

 living state, in order that they may be sold for young girls to use as playthings." 



