BIRDS 417 



the Solway Firth. On our near approach the party broke up 

 and dispersed, but not before they had swooped noisily round 

 us. Earlier in the afternoon we had watched a pair busily 

 employed in fishing off the Grune Point. 



These birds are conspicuous also if, in early autumn, you 

 take a trip in a boat trawling in the waters of the Solway. 

 Sailing up and down the main channel on the 1 4th of August 

 1890 we enjoyed a quiet study of the sea-birds' life, as the 

 Black-headed Gulls (adults, which had already lost the dark 

 hood) hovered over the waves in search of drifting prey, while 

 many young Lesser Black-backs beat along the sea- shore. The 

 prettiest sight was afforded by the Common Terns, following 

 up the ebbing tide, at one time darting on to the surface of the 

 water, at another hovering airily over the retreating shallows. 

 But this Tern is more numerous in the middle of September, 

 when migration has set in, than earlier in the season. On the 

 20th of September 1889 Mr. H. Leavers saw many flocks of 

 Terns in the lower waters of the Solway, including one flock of 

 more than half a hundred birds. Four shot for identification 

 were Common Terns. A percentage of birds were young, but 

 adults, as is usual, largely predominated. Apropos of the 

 Solway, it may be repeated that though no Common Terns at 

 present nest in a colony upon any part of our sea-beach, in Sir 

 W. Jardine's day 'a few pairs bred on the shingle above 

 Skinburness.' 



ARCTIC TERN. 



Sterna macrura, Naum. 



The Arctic Tern is chiefly a spring and autumn visitant to 

 our open sea-board, but has always nested on Walney Island, 

 where Mr. Howard Saunders in 1865 estimated its numbers to 

 be equal to those of the Common Tern. Ten years afterwards 

 Mr. H. Durnford considered the Common Tern to predominate, 

 and in the season of 1891 the Arctic Terns were certainly in a 

 great minority, though we detected undoubted Arctic Terns 

 hovering over us. Mr. Archibald had tried to snare some 

 specimens at the north end the previous year, and, though he 



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