COMMON TERN AND BLACK-HEADED GULL. 143 



It was not possible to carry out any close observations of the 

 old birds at their nests without risk of keeping them off their 

 eggs too long. The approach for a considerable distance over 

 the bare salting was a sufficient warning to them. At a distance 

 of nearly a mile from the actual nests individual birds would 

 already be screaming over one's head. The Terns were generally 

 the first to arrive, but the Gulls would not be far behind. At 

 the distance of half a mile the sitting birds could be seen rising. 

 By the time I had worked my way through the colony to the far 

 end, the birds would have begun to settle again where I firBt 

 came amongst them. Watching through glasses from the 

 distant upland, with the sunshine striking on the white plumage 

 of the birds, it was easy to see that, even with no human being 

 to alarm them, they were a very restless community. There 

 was a continual coming and going of non-sitting birds ; and 

 it seemed not a little quarrelling amongst those sitting on 

 the eggs. 



One could not but be struck by the profusion of the one or 

 two species of flowering marsh-plants which grew on this 

 salting. The thrift was just beginning to open out when I 

 started marking the nests on June 7th. During the weeks that 

 followed there were acres pink with it. By July 4th the flowers 

 were past their prime. Then the sea-lavender was beginning 

 to open ; and that would last well towards the end of August, 

 and tint just as large an area of the marsh with its purple. 



