142 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



shade with the colour of the purslane. I looked upon this as 

 a coincidence only, and mention it simply to show how green 

 the eggs were. Another clutch of two eggs contained one of a 

 normal colour, the other a deep red resembling a handsome type 

 of Kestrel's egg. 



The nestling Terns, when just hatched, had the feet and the 

 base of the bill pale pink ; the tip of the bill was black, with a 

 very pronounced white egg-tooth. The down on the upper part 

 of the body was a pale sandy colour with black stipplings. On 

 the under parts it was pure white, with the exception of the chin 

 and upper throat, which were quite black. As the chicks grew, 

 this black turned to brown and gradually diminished in area. 

 The down of the nestling Gulls was a much deeper shade of 

 colour than that of the Terns. Their bills and feet were dull 

 flesh colour, with a tinge of purple in it — something the colour 

 of hands " blue with cold." 



Some of the nestling Terns died. I made notes of sixteen 

 deaths. The rain was responsible for a good many of them. 

 But more than half of the number came to their death by 

 drowning in the shallow pools with steep edges, which I 

 mentioned in the beginning of this article. The water in these 

 pools generally only reached to within six inches of the top of 

 the bank. The nestlings having got into the water were unable 

 to get out over the steep six inches of bank. It looked quite 

 eerie to see a dead nestling Tern moving in jerky fashion across 

 a pool, until the mystery was explained by the discovery of a 

 Crab tugging at it. The nestling Gulls were more fortunate. I 

 marked a number of the nestlings of both species with the 

 aluminium rings issued by the proprietors of ' British Birds.' 

 Only one of the dead nestling Terns had a ring on. But the 

 only nestling Gull found dead was a marked bird, and the ring 

 had caused its death by becoming entangled with the materials 

 of the nest. Some young Shelducks came to grief amongst the 

 Gulls and Terns. Possibly their striking piebald down drew 

 too much attention to their presence. Four of them were lying 

 dead scattered through the colony on July 19th. Two Bed- 

 shanks brought off their families successfully during the time I 

 was carrying out my observations, with their nests in close 

 proximity to those of some Terns. 



