416 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



river Eden and Esk in Sol way Firth. This is the only locality 

 they resort to in this district to my knowledge, with the excep- 

 tion of a few pairs which, I believe, breed every year upon 

 Solway Flow. In some seasons they commence to lay their 

 eggs about the latter end of May, and fresh ones may occasion- 

 ally be obtained until the beginning of July ; but the best time 

 to procure them before incubation commences is the first week 

 in June. They usually make little or no nest. Their eggs, 

 which vary from two to four in number, are generally placed 

 either on the sand or the green sward of the marsh : they are 

 exceedingly variable, not only with respect to colour and mark- 

 ing, but also to size and shape.' I have never seen four eggs in 

 a nest myself, but entertain no doubt that, in the few instances 

 of the kind which have been reported, two Terns had laid their 

 eggs together. After the first eggs have been taken on Rock- 

 liffe marsh, as frequently happens, the Terns generally shift 

 their quarters before they lay again, and should the cattle 

 pastured on the marsh occupy their ground, they attack them 

 vehemently, to the chagrin of the marsh ' herds.' Their intoler- 

 ance of cattle is exactly analogous to the resentment with which 

 the Common Terns pursue the young of the Black-headed Gull 

 on Walney Island. Their attacks are first directed against the 

 helpless young, but are specially vicious when the young Black- 

 headed Gulls first begin to fly. If a luckless youngster happens 

 to enter the ternery, the Terns swoop at him savagely, and 

 frequently with fatal results. In one instance I saw about a 

 score of young Gulls, unable to fly, cross the beach and make 

 for the bare sands, hoping thus to elude their persecutors. But 

 their flight was vain, for the Terns followed their retreating 

 enemy, one Tern after another in rapid succession darting down 

 to disable, if possible, their inoffensive victims, which never 

 attempted to show fight. 



Most persons probably consider Terns to be birds of un- 

 wearied flight, but, as already remarked, they like to perch on 

 the salt marsh, while not unfrequently they rest on open sands. 

 On the 30th of May this year (1891) I saw between twenty 

 and thirty of these Terns congregating on the edge of the wide 

 expanse of sand which stretches away from Skinburness far into 



