Birds, 305 



brown. When the complement of eggs is nearly completed, they are carefully covered 

 over, but the birds are not so particular at first, as I have often seen nests with one or 

 tvi^o eggs in, left uncovered ; afterwards, and during the time of incubation, they are 

 concealed by a larger covering, not, as Professor Rennie tells us, of dry hay, which is 

 often a scarce commodity in the dabchick's haunts, but with the water-plants or rushes 

 growing by ; and one plant, the water crow-foot {Ranunculus aquatilis) appears to be 

 a favourite with them for this purpose. I have seen the eggs covered with this, when 

 the birds must have taken great pains to procure it, as none was growing where the 

 nest was built, or nearer than an adjacent pond, to obtain it from which they must 

 have crossed some dry land. From the quantity of material used for this covering, 

 and the extreme rarity of ever finding a full complement of eggs without it, it is ob- 

 vious that it is not always hastily placed on when quitting the nest ; it must be the 

 work of time to do it, and the covering is allowed to remain, the bird performing her 

 duties of incubation upon the top of it, a situation I have sometimes surprised them 

 in, when plump, in a second they go into the water and are seen no more, leaving be- 

 hind them no more appearance of nest than a lump of weeds : upon these occasions I 

 have often found both the eggs and covering quite warm, the former far advanced to- 

 wards hatching. — Christopher Parsons, F.L.S. ; North Shoehury Hall, Essex, October 

 12, 1843. 



Notes on the occurrence of the Arctic Tern, young and adult, in Lincolnshire. On 

 the 15th of July I visited the Skegness coast, and was much gratified in discovering 

 at a place called Gibraltar point, several nests and eggs of different species of tern, as 

 also in procuring two beautiful adult specimens of the arctic tern with their young. 

 This species, of which Mr. Yarrell has given an excellent figure and description in 

 his ' History of British Birds,' a work which ought to be in the possession of every 

 ornithologist, appears to be rather plentiful than otherwise in the above-named lo- 

 cality; associating with the common and lesser terns, amongst which it may rea- 

 dily be distinguished whilst on the wing, by its rather slower and more stately 

 flight, as well as by its peculiar note, which is a single harsh scream, repeated at 

 short intervals, being a marked contrast to the clamorous cries of the other species 

 of tern. The nests of these birds consisted merely of a slight depression in the 

 sand of the open beach, just beyond reach of the tide, scantily lined with small 

 fragments of bleached or glittering shells, and contained in every instance but two 

 eggs. — S. Willoughhy ; Bratoft, near Spilsby, August 17, 1843. 



Note on the Northern Diver. A few weeks ago, my uncle, Mr. Edmonston of 

 Buness, shot a young bird of this species {Colymbus Immer of the older writers), 

 which was evidently a bird of this year, the quills being almost unformed, and the 

 bird, in short, being scarcely fledged ; this proves that the northern diver breeds in 

 Shetland, a fact I have long suspected. The specimen alluded to was killed from 

 a company of five individuals, two of which were old birds, and three similar to 

 the one procured. The old birds are seldom seen in winter, but the young or im- 

 mers are then abundant. The dingy grey of the immer appears not to be fairly 

 changed into the beautiful markings of maturity until the third or fourth year. — 

 Thos. Edmonston, jun- ; Baltasound, Shetland, September, 1843. 



