BIRDS OF THE RAVENGLASS GULLERY. 173 
creature, yellowish buff with black spots and stripes, harmonized 
very closely with the shingle; indeed, the young of this Tern 
are even more difficult to distinguish from their surroundings 
than are the eggs. The feet and legs of this nestling were of a 
delicate shrimp-pink colour. 
Apart from those that nest in the immediate vicinity, not 
many species of birds frequent the estuaries at midsummer. 
Herring-Gulls (Larus argentatus)—chiefly immature birds—were 
always about the harbour, and on June 28rd I saw an adult 
Lesser Black-back (ZL. fuscus). Two Greater Black-backs (L. 
marinus)—birds in immature dress, with black tail-bars—haunted 
the harbour, where they often associated with the Herring-Gulls. 
One morning I watched a Herring-Gull tearing at the entrails of 
a dead Dog on the shore. Within a foot or two of it stood an 
old Rook and two young ones, obviously afraid to venture nearer, 
but as soon as the Gull flew away gorged they hurried to the 
feast. 
There is a heronry at Muncaster, and at low tide Herons fish 
in the shallow pools, sometimes close to the village. Of wading 
birds, which no doubt are plentiful at the seasons of migration, 
I saw, with the exception of an occasional Curlew (Nuwmenius 
arquatus), almost nothing. On June 28th there was a single 
Dunlin (Tringa alpina)—a black-bellied bird—feeding with three 
Ringed Plovers. On July 8th I saw two, and on the 10th a flock 
of forty-one, mostly, at any rate, adult birds in summer dress. 
These were, doubtless, the vanguard of the birds which had 
nested on the fells, or possibly in some district further north. 
The Common Sandpiper (Totanus hypoleucus) was abundant on 
the rivers above the railway, where, judging from their noisy 
demonstrations, several pairs were nesting on the tidal portions 
of the streams. It was not, however, until July 4th that I saw 
a Sandpiper in the harbour; from that date they became daily 
more numerous on the mud-flats and in the gutters. 
