Song Birds and Water Fowl 



for the terns do not aim at concealment : they 

 appear, rather, to court publicity. Along the 

 seashore, in the line of seaweed above high 

 tide, in any clear space back among the rocks, 

 especially in the stunted herbage and along the 

 narrow sheep-paths, one will find these primi- 

 tive affairs, hardly to be graced with the name 

 of nest. They are thus scattered over a large 

 part of the island ; and, unless one takes heed 

 to his ways, he is liable to tread on them. I 

 saw one nest in which two eggs had been 

 crushed by the foot of man or sheep, and bare- 

 ly missed doing the same myself. The recep- 

 tacle of the eggs is a slight depression in the 

 ground, on which they occasionally arrange 

 considerable dried grass; but usually a few 

 wisps of hay are thought quite sufficient, and 

 sometimes even this barest lining is dispensed 

 with, and the eggs are committed to the cold 

 earth. Indeed, the very depression in the ground 

 may be lacking ; for, in one instance, when I 

 had taken the egg in my hand, I was at a loss 

 where to replace it, so deficient was the nest 

 in every vestige of material and form. This is 

 the very opposite of the laborious and artistic 

 productions of many of our land birds, and is 

 commonly adduced as an argument to prove 



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