A RECENT VISIT TO THE FARNE IStANDS. 299 



Always, as long as the English language is spoken, will the 

 deed wrought by this young Northumbrian maiden be treasured 

 amongst the noblest annals of the race. Grace Darling did not 

 long survive her deed of heroism ; she died about two years 

 afterwards, at the early age of 26. 



On the south side of Brownsman we found a large colony of 

 the Sea-swallows, chiefly the Common Tern. Much of the higher 

 part of the island is covered with a great abundance of rough 

 grasses and various sea-loving plants, most plentiful and con- 

 spicuous being the handsome bell-campion, with its white flower 

 and much inflated calyx ; thrift, with dense clusters of pink 

 flowers, Greenland scurvy-grass, and saltwort. Much care is 

 necessary to prevent stepping on the eggs of the Terns, which 

 are deposited, to the number of two or three, in shallow de- 

 pressions amongst the herbage, sometimes on the bare rock itself. 

 Here also were many nests of the Eider, with the female sitting 

 close. Hundreds of excited Terns filled the air, now one, and 

 then another, swooping to within a few feet of our head, and 

 saluting us with a continual "kit-kit-kit." Amongst the cloud 

 of Terns careering above was one with quite a distinct call-note ; 

 we shortly picked out the bird, and watched him for some time 

 through the glass, and compared with the Common Tern, 

 marked his long graceful greyhound-like form and comparatively 

 shorter wing. This was the only example of the Koseate 

 Tern seen during our visit. The keeper on the Wamses had 

 seen a single pair, so it is probable a few may be nesting. The 

 late Prideaux John Selby, of Twizell House, who paid great 

 attention to the birds on the Fames, stated that in 1831 there 

 was a colony on Brownsman, also another on the Wamses. We 

 saw no Lesser Terns about the islands ; in 1832 a small 

 colony (since extinct) existed on the mainland of Holy Island. 

 Subsequent to our visit to the islands in June, Mr. H. B. Hewet- 

 son sent twenty fresh eggs of the Lesser Tern, taken from 

 nests on the east coast, with instructions to place them in those 

 of the Terns on Brownsman; and it is to be hoped that 

 the experiment may result in their establishment again on the 

 Northumbrian coast. 



Staple Island is of basaltic origin, with a slope to the north, 

 and much fissured and broken towards the south ; within a few 

 yards of the cliff, on this south end, are three huge rocks of 



2 A3 



