A rmitt : The Birds of Rydal. 



2 S5 



wing together. I am told that it nests, too, in the woods above 

 Grasmere. The gardener at Silverhow, who sees it often, found 

 two young birds drowned in the garden well in a dry season 

 when the beck was empty. 



Common Tern. Sterna fluviatilis Naum. Occasional 

 visitant. I picked up a dead bird on the west shore by Steps 

 End on 22nd May 1897 ; a straggler probably from bands 

 migrating to their nesting-ground on the Cumberland coast. 



Black-headed Gull. Larus ridibundus L. Winter visitant 

 and, indeed, at all seasons but the nesting. After the nesting is 

 over it swarms up the valleys from the coast, and stays as long 

 as food-supply holds out. It is here for the short season of the 

 Bracken-clock Beetle, vast numbers of which it must eat. On 

 9th July 1899, I found a young bird by the lake shore so 

 immature and weakly that it rose with difficulty, and was too 

 feeble to move far. It must have been left behind from a 

 moving flock. 



Lesser Black-backed Gull. Larus fuscus L. Passing 

 visitant in spring. A beautiful sight it is to see a pair of these 

 Gulls drop and float side by side on the lake, while a third 

 sweeps round with loud, queer cries. Odd birds are often 

 present, too, after the nest-season, along with flocks of the 

 former species, and spend their time floating on the lake 

 snatching at the great flies. Formerly they bred on islands 

 of Windermere and Ullswater. 



Herring Gull. Larus argentatus Gmel. Occasional visitant. 

 Seen sometimes in spring, like the above species. 



Common Gull. Larus canus L. Winter visitant in small 

 flocks. These are much larger in wild weather and in flood- 

 times, when with the Black-headed Gull it haunts the flat land 

 under Loughrigg. 



Great Crested Grebe. Lophaethyia cristata (L. ). Occa- 

 sional visitant. Mr. Wykeham-Martin has seen it on the lake. 



Red-necked Grebe. Lophaethyia grisegena (Bodd.). Occa- 

 sional visitant. Seen by myself 6th March 1900. The identifica- 

 tion of this species (of which I took careful notes) was very 

 kindly confirmed by Mr. H. Raw son, who has skins of this 

 species and of the Sclavonian Grebe shot on Windermere. 



Little Grebe. Podiceps fluviatilis (Tun St.). Winter 

 visitant. Frequents the river mouth and the shallower ends oi 

 the lake. 



1902 August 1. 



