22102089075 sm Med K5672 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.Org/details/b2806012x_0006 BPUMSv A CLARKE LTD. LiTHOf HULL AND LCnDO^ Fig. 465 466 467 468 Puffin. Buack-Throated Diver. Red-Throated Diver. Great Crested Grebe. Fig. 475 Figs. 469 — 470 471—472 473 474 Storm Petree. Littee Grebe. Fuemar. Manx Shearwater. Fork-Taieed Petree. PL. XXII, 462 <^i(5nr'oh£LOJ'h. ■ 461 459 457 460 458 4 CLAMKE uTD LJTHOb HUUt ANC L0»00- Fig. 457—462 GU11.1.EMOT. i;A PL. XXI. SRUMai' A CLARKE Liii LiTHOS. MULL AND LONDON Figs. 44^ — 449 450 Kittiwake Guee. Fig. 451 Richardson’s Skua. Great Skua. 452 — 454 Razorbiee. Figs. 455—456 Beack Guieeemot. - ^ tr •V ^\i I PL. XX. 44 7 uf k. BflUMB'. 4 -Lf .,£ LT.r • iTHOS H Ut 1. ANO LOriDOf^ 437 » . ' • * j * » 4: 442 444 439 Figs. 436—437 Arctic Tern. Figs. 443—444 Common Gijee. 438—439 Littee Tern. 445 herring Guee. 440 442 Beack-Headed Guee. 446 Great Beack-Backed Guel Fig. 447 Lesser Beack-Backed Guee. Figs. 421 Greenshank. 422 — 423 Black-tailed Godwit. 424 Curlew. 425 Whimbrel. Figs. 426 — 427 428—431 432—433 434—435 Black Tern. Sandwich Tern, Roseate Tern. Common Tern. I BRITISH BIRDS WITH THEIR Nksts and Eggs IN SIX VOLUMES I ORDER GAVI^. By HENRY O. FORBES, LE.D., F.R.G.S., A.E.S., M.B.O.U., Author of “A Naturalist’s Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago,” &c. ORDER PYGOPODES. By O. V. APLIN, F.L.S., M.B.O.U., Author of “ The Birds of Oxfordshire.” ORDER TUBINARES. By REV. H. A. MACPHERSON, M.A., M.B.O.U., Author of “The Fauna of Lakeland,” Joint Author of “Fur and Fe.a.ther” Series, &c. ILLUSTRATED BY F. W. FROHAV/K, M.B.O.U., F.E.S. VOLUME VI. BRUMBY & CLARKE, Limited, Baker Street, Hull, -\nd 5, Farringdon Avenue, London, E.C. WELLCOME INSTITUTE LIBRARY Coll. welMOmec Call No. ( ^ "" CONTENTS. Those marked thus, * not being recognized as British Birds, are not figured. A lea impennis - - - 132 Aka torda - - - - - - 128 *AnotiS stolidus - - - 55 Arctic Tern - - - - - - 42 *Black-Eyebrowed Albatro.s - - - 240 Black Guillemot - - - - 150 Black-Headed Gull - - - 68 Black Tern - - - - - - 8 Black-Throated Diver - - - - 172 Bonaparte’s Gull - - - - 63 Briinnich’s Guillemot - - - - 146 Buffon’s Skua - - - 123 *Dulweria cohimbinia - - - 239 *'Bul\ver’s Petrel - - - - 239 ♦Capped Petrel - - - 238 Caspian Tern - - - 23 ♦Collared Petrel - - - - 239 *Colymbus adamsi - - - - 170 Colymbus arcticus - - - - 172 Colynibus glacialis - - - 164 Colymbus septentrionalis - - - 176 Common Gull - - - 76 Common Tern - - - 37 *Diomcdca melanophrys - - - - 240 ♦Dusky Shearwater - - - 235 Eared Grebe - - - 197 Fork-Tailed Petrel - - - 213 Fratercula arctica - - - - 158 ♦Frigate Petrel - - - 221 Fulmar - - - 221 Fuhnarus glacialis - - - 221 Gelochelidon anglica - - - 18 Glaucous Gull - - - 95 ♦Gould’s Eittle Shearwater - - - 236 Great Auk - - - - - - 132 Great Black-Backed Gull - - - 90 ♦Great Black-Headed Gull - - - 75 Great Crested Grebe - - - - 181 Great Northern Diver - - - - 164 Great Shearw'ater- - - - 226 Great Skua - - - - - - 112 Guillemot - . - - - - 138 Gull-Billed Tern - - - - 18 Herring Gull - - - 80 Hydrocheiido7i hybrida - - - - 15 Hydrochelidon leucoptera - - - 13 Hydrochelido7i 7iig7'a - - - 8 Hydroprog7ie caspia - - - 23 Iceland Gull - - _ 99 Ivory Gull - - - - - - 108 Kittiwake Gull - - - - 102 Larus a>ge7itahts - - - - 80 ^La7'us cachi7i7ia7is - - - - 242 Larus ca7ius - - - - - - 76 Larus fuscus - - - 85 La7'us glauczis - - - 95 ^'Lar7is ichthyaehis - - - - 75 Larus leucoptcrus - - - - 99 Larus 77iarmus - - - 90 Larus 77icla7iocephahis - - - - 73 Larus 77imutus - - - 65 Lartis Philadelphia - - - 63 La7'us ridibtmdtis - - - - 68 CONTENTS. Lesser Black-Backed Gull - - - 85 ^Lesser Sooty Tern - - - 55 ^Levantine Shearwater - - - - 235 Little Auk - - - - - - 154 Little Grebe - - - 202 Little Gull - - - - - - 65 Little Tern - - - - - - 48 ^Luscmiola schwarzi - - - 241 ‘"Madeira Storm Petrel - _ - - 218 Manx Shearumter - - - 229 ‘""Mediterranean Black-Headed Gull - 73 "^•Mediterranean Herring Gull - - 242 Megalestris catarrhacies - - - - 112 Mergulus alle - - - 154 "*"Noddy - - - - - - - 55 Oceanites oceanicus - - - 218 ^'Ocea7iodrovia cryptoleucura - - - 218 Oceanodroma leucorrhoa - - - 213 ^'QLstrelata brevipes - - - 239 ^Qlstrclata hcesitata - - - 238 Pagophila eburnea - - - 108 '^Pelagodi'oma marina - - - 221 Podicipes auritus - - - - 192 Podicipes cristatus- - - - 181 Podicipes fiuviatilis - - - 202 Podicipes griseige^ia - - - 188 Podicipes nigricollis - - - 197 Pomatorhine Skua - - - 1 16 Procellaria pelagica - - - 208 Puffin - - - - - - - 158 PicffL7uts angloru77i - - - 229 '^'Pu_ffi7ius assimilis - - - - 236 Puffi.7ius gravis - - - 226 P7iffi.7ius griseus - - - - 236 ^'P7iffi7ius obscurus - - - - 235 ’^'Puffi.7ius yelkoua7ius - - 235 ^Radde’s Bush-Warbler- - - - 241 Razorbill - - - - - - 128 Red-Necked Grebe - - - 188 Red-Throated Diver - - - - 176 ^'Rhodostethia rosea- - - - 59 Richardson’s Skua - - - 119 Rissa tridactyla - - - 102 Roseate Tern - - - 31 Sabine’s Gull - - - 56 Sandwich Tern - - - - 27 Sclavonian Grebe - - - 192 Sooty Shearwater - - - 236 Sooty Tern - - - - - - 52 Ste7'C07'a7ius crepidatus - - - - 119 Stercorarius parasiticus- - - . - 123 Stercorarius po77iatorhi7ius - - - 116 ^Ster7ia a7ices theta - - - - 55 Stcr7ia ca7itiaca - - - 27 Stcr7ia dozigalli - - - 31 Ster7ia fiuviatilis - - - - 37 Ster7ia fidigmosa - - - - 52 Ste7'7ia 77iacrura - - - - 42 Stc7'7ia 77ii7iuta - - - 48 Storm Petrel - - - 208 Uria brue7i7iichi - - - - 146 U7da gryllc - - - - - - 150 Uria t7'oile - - - - - - 138 ‘^Wedge-Tailed Gull - - - - 59 Whiskered Tern - - - - 15 "White-Billed Northern Diver - - 170 White-Winged Black Tern - - - 13 Wilson’s Petrel - - - - 218 Xc77ia sabmii - - - 56 BRITISH BIRDS, With their Nests and Eggs. ORDER GAVI/E The term Gavise, applied to the Order of birds to be described in the succeeding pages, and adopted from the occasionally used Italian word gavia, signifying a Gull, is now restricted to the two families containing the Gulls and Terns fLaridaJ and the Skuas fStercorariidcBj, although on its first application it included several additional groups. These families form a very compact and easily recognized assemblage of birds, of which members of one or other of their genera must be familiar to every visitor to our coasts, lakes, marshes, or river estuaries ; for they are found in all such situations in almost every country in the world in the summer (of their latitude) and not a few of them throughout the winter also. Their nearest relatives are the Plovers. Though externally not very similar to them, many of the Laridce, the Terns especially, agree with them in many of their other characters, such as in the form of their wings, the colour of their eggs, and, chiefly, in their internal anatomy. Without going into details of their internal structure, the Gaviae may be easily recognized. They are water-frequenting birds, with sharp or coulter-shaped VoL. VI. B 2 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs beaks, long sharp wings, indicative of rapid and powerful flight, short legs, small feet and fully (instead of, as in the Plovers, partially) webbed toes. The tarsus is scutellated in front and reticulated behind. They possess an after shaft (or second smaller feather branching from the inner surface of the quill) to the body feathers ; twelve tail feathers ; one minute, concealed, and ten large primaries ; and in the secondaries (or quills on the ulna or cubitus) a blank occurs between the fourth and sixth feathers (although the flfth upper and under coverts are present), an unexplained feature, from which those birds exhibiting it have been designated Aquinto cubital. The young on emerging from the egg are covered with down, and able to run about when a few hours old. The Gaviae rarely lay more than three eggs, “ spotted or scrolled with dark colours on a white, buff, or ochraceous ground ” (Saunders). The Terns, Gulls, and Skuas are distributed over all the seas of the globe, and on most of the great inland lakes of its chief continents. As a rule they assemble in vast crowds during the breeding season, innumerable nests being frequently found within some restricted and favourite area selected by them as their nursery for the year. Many of them are migratory, coming to this country in the spring, and after breeding in the summer, returning in autumn to more genial quarters for the winter. Many also that winter far south of our latitude, are mere birds of passage at those seasons, their breeding places being still farther north than the British Isles. The Larida are divided into three sub families : the Terns or Sea-Swallows fSternincE) , the true Gulls (Larina), and the Skimmers, Cut- waters, or Scissors- bills, as they are variously named, (Rhynchopince). The first two subfamilies are abundantly represented in Great Britain ; but none of the Skimmers (of which there are five species all belonging to the one genus Rhynchops) have even reached our shores. They are chiefly temperate and sub-tropical birds (inhabiting Africa, India, North and South America), remarkable for the peculiar form of the bill, which consists of two sharp blades, the upper half being freely moveable, while the lower and larger is vertically compressed to quite a thin plate. The Larida may be distinguished from the Stercorariida (Skuas) by the absence of a cere, or bare soft skin, at the base of the maxilla, and of the strong hook to the beak, which are characters conspicuous in the Skuas. In the latter family the toes are always much more fully webbed and the claws larger and sharper than among the Gulls. Their breast bone also has only one notch in its broader margin instead of two, as in the Gull’s sternum. The Larida vary much at different seasons of the year in the colour of their plumage — some of them taking four to five years to attain maturity. Order Gavi^ 3 The Terns fSternincB) have been divided by Mr. Sannders — our highest and most recent authority on the Gavise — into the following eleven genera, to which fifty-one species have been referred. 1. — Hydrochelidon, or Marsh Terns, with four species, of which three are recognized as having a claim to be included in the British list. They are small birds with grey plumage ; the head with no prolonged gape-plumes ; the tail slightly pointed and less than half the length of the wing ; the bill less than twice the length of the tarsus, and their feeble feet having the long slender toes only half webbed. They derive their name of Marsh-Tern from nesting in marshes, on tussocks or floating vegetation. 2. — Gelochelidon, or Gull-BillEd Terns, containing but a single species (which visits our shores), with a stout beak, without gape-plumes ; the tail less than half the length of the wing, its outer feathers pointed and longer than the others ; the tarsus exceeding the middle toe and claw in length. 3. — Hydroprogne^ containing one species only, which is a visitor to onr shores, with no gape-plumes ; the bill very deep and stout ; the tail less in length than one third of the wing, its outer feathers being pointed and longer than the rest ; and the tarsus shorter than the middle toe and claw. 4. — Sterna, the Sea Tern.s, embracing thirty-three species from all parts of the globe, of which seven have bred on or visited Great Britain, with no gape- plumes ; the bill compressed and slender ; the tail, its outer feathers pointed and exceeding the rest in length, never less than half the length of the wing, and the tarsus never exceeding the length of the middle toe and its claw. 5. — Anous, or Noddies, of which there are only two species, probably reducible (on the acquisition of additional specimens from the Eastern Pacific) to one, with sooty plumage and grey head ; the strong and decurved beak longer than the middle toe and claw ; the graduated tail, with the fourth pair of feathers from the outside, exceeding the rest in length. The Noddies are essentially tropical birds, but two or three individuals in their wanderings have visited our shores, their visits separated by long intervals of time. Representatives of the above five groups nest on, or have visited the British Isles ; but no species of the remaining genera have yet been recorded from our area. 6. — Phcethusa, containing but one South American species, with no gape- plnmes ; the bill large, stout, and twice as long as the tarsus ; the tail shorter than half the length of the wing ; the webs of tlie feet only slightly indented. 7. — Seena, having also only a single river- 'reqnenting species, confined to India and Malacca ; without gape-plumes ; the tail, with its outer feathers pointed 4 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. and longer than the rest, more than three-fourths the length of the wing; the tarsus shorter than the length of the middle toe and claw, and the bill very stout. 8. — Nania, embracing one aberrant species, the Inca Tern, from the coasts of Peru and Chili ; with conspicuous gape-plumes ; the bill strong and decurved ; the tail slightly forked, with its two outer feathers of about equal length. 9. — Procehterna, containing two species confined to the Western Pacific, with grey plumage ; the tail graduated and its two outer feathers shorter than the inner pair next to them, which are the longest in the tail ; the foot long, its middle toe and claw exceeding in length the ridge of the beak. 10. — Micranous, embracing three tropical species, with the bill long and slender; the tail graduated, with its third pair of feathers from the outside longer than the rest. 11. — Gygis, containing two species, almost restricted to the coral islands of the southern hemisphere, with bill stout and pointed, broad at the base and tapering upwards in front ; tail graduated ; toes long and slender, with deeply incised webs, the midmost toe being specially long. These beautiful pure white birds lay their single white egg in the clefts between the leaflets of the cocoanut palms, on the cavity of a branch of a tree, on a flat board, or “ anywhere where it will lie ” as Mr. Saunders well observes. The Terns may be distinguished from the Gulls by their straighter and more slender bill, with mandibles of equal length, and their more or less forked tail. They are found in all parts of the globe, some nesting by the sea-shore, others in marshes, or by the sandy banks of rivers, not infrequently thousands of miles inland. From their forked tail, long pointed wings, swift flight, and graceful action while feeding from the surface of the water, they have derived, doubtless, the very appropriate name of Sea-Swallows, by which they are generally known. Terns, as has been stated above, are able to run about very soon after emerging from the egg, and are, at that stage of their existenee, covered with down. In a few weeks this cradle covering is exchanged for their first immature — a more or less barred and mottled with blaekish-brown — plumage, which, from the first autumn through the next spring and summer, loses (by fading of the colour and wearing of the feathers) more and more of the bars and mottlings, while during the same period acquiring a few dark feathers in the head, and will be replaced in the following autumn by the bird’s first winter plumage, and finally in its second spring by its first nuptial dress. Every succeeding year the summer (or breeding) plumage, on moulting at the end of July or beginning of August, changes into a less ornate, or winter garb, thus completing the cycle of the Tern’s Order Gavi.c. 5 plumage changes. Many species, however, appear to be capable of breeding before they have assumed their fully mature plumage. The Larince are divided into seven genera, among which the fifty-four recognized species are relegated : — 1. — Xenia, containing two species (circumpolar in habitat in summer, but ranging beyond the tropics in winter), with long wings, forked tail, and the hind toe free and very small. One of the species is recorded from Britain. 2. — Rhodostethia, in which only one — a circumpolar — species is included, at once characterized by its wedge-shaped tail, the two central feathers being nearly two inches longer than the others, a character unique among the Gulls. 3. — Larus, embracing, according to Mr. Saunders’ latest investigation of the group, forty-four species (a dozen of them being either resident in, or visitors to the British Isles), having the tail square; the bill, with linear nostrils, three times as long as it is deep ; the hind toe free and well developed, and the lower third of the leg bare. In some species the mature birds assume a dark head in the breeding season ; as a rule, however, dark feathers, or a speckled plumage, indicate immaturity. 4. — Gabianus, containing a single Australian species, resembling in outward appearance the Great Black-backed Gull, with a stout and compressed bill, of which the length is less than twice the depth. 5. — Leucophaus, containing one species, inhabiting southern South America and the Antarctic Islands, with the hind toe joined to the inner by a rugose membrane ; the feet coarse, strong, and their webs considerably indented ; the bill very short and obtuse (Saunders). 6. — Rissa, the KiTTiWAKES, numbering two species, with an arctic summer habitat, extending in winter into sub-tropical latitudes ; having the hind toe very rudimentary, or absent, though occasionally not ill developed ; the tarsus very short compared with the middle toe and claw ; the bill peculiarly curved ; the tail slightly forked ; the plumage of the immature bird quite unlike that of the adult, or of the young of other species of the subfamily ; they nest invariably on precipitous rocks. 7. — Pagophila, containing a single representative, the Ivory Guel, with the bill short and stout ; the feet coarse, rough with serrated membranes, much excised webs and strong curved claws (Saunders) ; the hind toe joined to the inner toe on the inside of the foot by a serrated membrane. The Ivor}'- Gull has a circumpolar habitat. The true Gulls (Larince) have the bill with its upper mandible longer than, and bent down over the tip of, the lower ; the tail square, rarely forked or wedge-shaped. 6 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs The changes from youth to maturity take a longer time for their accomplish- ment among the Gulls than among the Terns. As among the latter the nesting plumage is succeeded in a very short time by the garb of the year, which is changed by moult in each spring and autumn, till the final and perfect plumage of the species is donned, in, among the larger members of the family, their fourth or fifth year, although some of the smaller Tern-like species may be in fully mature dress after the second spring moult. “ Even in those species,” as Mr. Saunders points out, “ which are destitute of hood at all seasons, there is a seemingly endless variation in the pattern of the primaries, the general tendency being to an increase in the lighter and a diminution in the darker portions of the webs with the advancing age of the individual — a rule which also holds good with many of those species the adults of which bear a hood in the breeding season, whilst on the other hand, there are others which exhibit the apparent anomaly of having a bood in the immature stage and losing it in the adult plumage.” The Stercorariidce, the Skuas, DunghunTERS, or Bo’suns (as they are more popularly known), differ from the Larida in their general appearance, habits, and structure. The robber instincts, with which they are so strongly endowed, have made them special objects of observation. Their serial bullying pursuit of the Terns and weaker sea-birds (who with terror stricken screams attempt to escape by vigorous flight, but are rarely successful without having to disgorge — which is the object of the Skuas’ attentions — the results of the recent fishing forays from which they are returning), never ceases to be a spectacle followed with the most absorbing interest by everyone who has the opportunity of watching these relentless pirates in their native haunts. The term “ Dunghunters,” from which they have obtained their general generic appellation Stercorarius, has been applied to them from the erroneous notion that that is the object of their pursuit of Terns and other sea- fowl, instead of its being the fish with which the birds are gorged. There are seven recognized species of Skua included under the two following genera : — 1. — Megalestris, or Great Skuas, containing four species, of which one, breeding in Britain, inhabits the subarctic regions of the northern hemisphere in summer, and its temperate latitudes in winter ; and three have an antarctic habitat, ranging northwards to the extremities of the great southern continents in winter. 2. — Stercorarius, or LessER Skuas, embracing three species (one of which visits and one breeds in the British Isles), whose home is the arctic or subarctic regions, whence in winter they wander southward on all the continents, across the equator far into the southern hemisphere. Order Gavi/E. 7 Stercorarius may be distinguished from Megalestris by tbe smaller size and slenderer bodies of the birds ; by the depth of the bill being less than the length of the cere ; the tarsus markedly less than, instead of subequal to, the middle toe and claw, and in having the central tail feathers three to four inches, instead of half an inch, longer than the rest. The young of the Skua emerges from the egg as a downy nestling, which in a few weeks, on becoming fledged, assumes a garb like its parents, but with bars and mottlings of a lighter colour. After becoming adult. Skuas show little seasonal change. In compiling this account of the present state of our knowledge of the British Gavias, we have to acknowledge our great indebtedness to the writings (including correspondence) of Mr. Howard Saunders, the highest European authority on this group, which we have often laid under liberal contribution. HENRY O. FORBES. ANNA FORBES. 8 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. Fa m ily — L A RID Ai . S2ibfatnily—S TERNINAl. Black Tern. Hydrochelidon nigra, Linn. This beautiful Marsh Tern was at one time a regular British breeding bird. It nested as late as the second decade of the century, in immense colonies in the broads of Norfolk, in the Kent and Lincolnshire marshes, and in various other parts of the South of England. The last year in which the Black Tern is known to have nested in England was 1858 ; and previous to that, after a long lapse, in 1853, owing to extensive areas of country remaining in a semi-bogged condition, after the great floods which had deluged large tracts in Norfolk in the previous winter. The draining of the fen districts and the spread of cultivation have deprived these fresh- water nesting species of their former nurseries. Now they have, in consequence, deserted our shores during the interesting season of incubation, and visit us only during the spring and autumn, when going to and returning (on their way to warmer latitudes) from the lands where, undisturbed, they have brought forth their broods. Such quiet spots are found in Sweden, Rnssia, Germany, and other parts of Enrope, as also in the southern parts of Canada and Alaska. The breeding range of this Tern in the eastern hemisphere may be roughly demarked by the 25th and the 55th parallels of north latitude, as far east as the 90th meridian. In winter the birds from this region migrate southward down both coasts of Africa. In the western hemisphere the range may be stated as between the 35th and 55th parallels across the continent from sea to sea; extending on migration as far, on its eastern side, as the West Indian Islands and the north- eastern shores of South America, and along the Pacific coast as far as Chili. During the migratory season, it is found more frequently on the south-west than on the south-east coasts of England ; although in April and May it is not nncommonly to be seen off the coasts of Sussex and Kent, while specimens are recorded from many other parts of the coast. The Black Tern is a rare — generally autumn — visitor to Scotland, and a still rarer to Ireland. In their varions plumages both sexes are alike at the same age. In the breeding or summer plumage, from which the females differ only in their slightly paler hue, the male has the head, neck, breast, and underside black ; the mantle. ' r* ^JuR. Black Tern Summer The Black Tern. 9 the upper tail-coverts, the tail and wings slate-grey ; the edge of the wing paler ; the primary shafts dull white, the webs dark slate-grey, except when new and unworn ; the thighs, the under tail and under wing-coverts, white ; greater under wing-coverts and axillaries pearl-grey ; bill black ; feet reddish-brown. Total length 9^ inches ; wing 8^ ; middle toe and claw '85 ; tarsus ‘6 inch. The Black Tern is one of the earliest to make its appearance every year on our coasts and river valleys, for a week or two in April and May, on its return from its warmer winter retreats on its way to its breeding quarters ; and considerable numbers may then be seen together — in incipient summer plumage — hawking over rivers and marshes for flies and other winged insects like Swallows, or dropping suddenly down out of the air, Gannet-like, and deftly picking from the surface of the water minnows, small fishes, worms, or other morsels of food. Finding no undisturbed spot within our bounds, as they once did, to rear their young upon, they make but a short stay with us, and growing every day more and more into their nuptial attire, they hurry on their way to the suitable and safe quarters, which the countries to the north and east of us afford, to undertake their parental duties. These duties over, the parents— generally preceded by the young of the year — pay us, in the autumn, on their way back again to the more genial south, a somewhat longer visit than in the spring. The Black Tern rarely makes its nest on the sea coast ; it is a fresh- water-loving bird, and builds in large colonies in reed-covered inland marshes where its nest, composed of vegetable debris piled together to form a fairly large structure, is placed on water-surrounded clumps of fixed vegetation, or occasionally on accumulations of pond material floating on the surface. It rarely nests before the end of May, and in some localities it may not begin for even a month or six weeks later. Never more than three eggs are laid (in size about ij inches long by i inch, or a little more, in diameter), with a ground colour varying from deep olive or pale chocolate to greenish-grey or buff, covered with black or umber, often confluent, blotches, scattered dots, or convoluted streaks, generally forming an irregular belt round the larger end. No part of the egg is free from markings. Dr. Coues has recorded that he saw a colony breeding on the Red River in North America, and found the eggs placed on masses of floating vegetation of the previous year’s reeds, and that they had to be carefully searched for, as they were “ laid directly on the moist matting without any nest in any instance, and readily eluded observation from their similarity in colour to the bed of reeds they rested on.” After about three weeks incubation, the chicks emerge covered with soft down of a reddish-brown colour, with the head, wings, and back marked with black ; VOL.VI. c lO British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. tlie throat sooty and the under surface buff. In a short time the chick becomes fully fledged, and appears in its first complete feathering, which differs from the summer vestment described above, in the forehead, a ring round the neck, the margin of the wings, and the entire under side being white, or greyish-white ; a bar through the eyes, the back of the head and nape blackish-brown ; the mantle, the scapulars, and the lesser upper wing-coverts blackish-brown (from the grey plumage being margined with this colour) ; the rest of the upper side and of the wings slate-grey, margined with brown and white. The bill brown, its base pinkish-white ; and the tail less forked. Altogether the birds have a general immature look. Before they finally leave our shores on their way to their winter quarters, many of the young birds show a tendency to lose the brownish colour and become greyer. By next spring a great deal of the bars and mottling is lost, and these birds, as may be seen during their stay on their first northward migratory passage, have become very similar to their maturer fellows ; the head, neck, and breast being black, but the belly shows more or fewer black feathers amid the white, the latter decreasing with the age of the bird, while the upper side only differs by a dark line along the edge of the wing. This immature plumage remains till the autumn. When their first winter dress^ — which is very different from that of the summer — is assumed, the forehead, neck, throat and collar are white, speckled with black ; the back of the head, the nape and round the eyes black, with pale margins ; the breast and belly white, variegated with black (the amount varying with the stage of moult) ; the shoulders and margins of the wing greyish-black. In the following spring these Terns appear, after their second true moult, in their first nuptial dress, and being about twenty months old, they have mated or will soon do so, and are about to begin the duties of incubation. In the succeeding autumn, when again on our shores on passage to a more southern latitude for the winter, they are completing the change — which will annually come over them — from their summer to their winter plumage. The food of the Black Tern consists of insects of all kinds which, like most of the Marsh-Terns, it captures on the wing , of small fishes, or other aquatic life which they plunge into the water to secure. They are constantly to be seen, as Dr. Elliott Coues has graphically described in his “ Birds of the North West,” “ hovering over the marshes in airy troops, fluttering hither and thither like so many Swallows or Night-Hawks, busily foraging for insects. These fall arrivals were chiefly young birds ; and of the old ones, none were seen wearing the breeding diess, which, therefore, must be early laid aside. These Terns, like the The Black Tern. II other smaller species, but just the reverse of the larger kinds, are perfectly familiar, or rather heedless, at all times. In the spring, at their breeding resorts, they dash down to an intruder, repeating with angry vehemence their shrill crik, crik, crik ; in the fall, when nearly silent, they are equally regardless of approach, often fluttering within a few feet of one’s head and then sailing on again, in the manner of Swallows. The flight is buoyant in the extreme and wayward, desultory, uncertain ; perhaps no bird of this country'- has so great an expanse of wing for its weight, and certainly none fly more lightly. In hovering along on the outlook for insects, they hold the bill pointing straight downward, like others of the family. In the spring I have observed them plunging, like other Terns, into the water for food, probably small fry ; but in the fall they seem to feed chiefly on winged insects, which they capture like Night-Hawks, as noted above.” Mr. C. A. Wright, to whom ornithologists in Europe generally are indebted for many notes on Mediterranean birds, especially those of Malta, has some interesting observations on this species in the “Ibis” of 1874. A large number of Black Terns were observed at the end of July, 1870, frequenting the harbour, and on the 6th August “ I found them,” he says, “ in abundance fishing in the New Harbour extension, which was at that time pretty free from shipping. I saw none in the black plumage of summer ; all were more or less marked with grey and white. I shot six, the average measurement being from 9J to 10 inches in length — the larger specimens being males, as is always the case with the different species of the Tern family ; length of wing 8^ inches. It was exceedingly interesting to watch their light and airy movements ; now dropping suddenly from their airy altitude, splashing the water like a falling stone in pursuit of some small fish or offal that had attracted their attention, now coursing through the air, in imitation, as it were, of the Swallow tribe. In many parts of the New Harbour were placed floating corks to mark certain spots where mines had been laid to blast the rock at the bottom, in order to deepen the anchorage. On most of these corks was to be seen a solitary Tern, quietly watching for some passing fish to seize it for its prey. They showed no fear of approaching boats. I amused myself for some time with one little fellow, by pulling my skiff to windward and allowing it to drift down towards him. He never moved until I had almost touched him with my hand, and then only to mount a few feet in the air over my head, and alight on the same cork the instant that I had passed. This experiment I repeated several times with the same result. Occasionally, while within a few inches of him, he would exchange calls with a passing companion. The note was rather a shrill scream. So close did he allow of my approach that I could watch the expressiou of his dark bright eye ; but there was nothing of 12 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. alarm in it. May be one reason for its loatbness to abandon tbis particular cork was the presence of a small fish, which he had captured and laid at his feet, and his not wishing to renounce so good a chance of a meal. Taking up the fish to examine and carefully replacing it, I had no sooner done so than my little friend immediately recovered his stand on the cork. So much fearlessness and confidence were enough to touch even a collector’s heart, and nothing could have induced me to repay them by injury.” “ The minute insects,” as Mr. Booth records, “ that collect in swarms over the broads and swampy pools in the marshes in the east of Norfolk, prove a great attraction to this species on their first arrival in that part of the county. Small parties are to be met with every season, and occasionally I have watched flocks of from fifty to sixty birds engaged in hawking for prey like Swifts ; at times they hover over the slades and water dykes after the manner of a Kestrel, or flap across the flooded portions of the hills with much the same actions as the Marsh- Owl, dipping down now and then for food. On the 28th of April, 1883, with a cold wind blowing from east-south-east, they were generally numerous, and a great difference in the shades of the pale grey colouring of the wings was remarked, some being so light that those who had never met with an opportunity of observing the White- winged Black Tern \Hydrochelido7i leucopterci\ in life, might readily have been mistaken as to the species. Small parties as well as single birds are often seen during the summer months resorting to the Norfolk Broads, and remaining for several days or even weeks in the district ; these stragglers seldom exhibit perfect plumage, and are probably birds of the previous year and non-breeders.” In his recent, very interesting work, “ A History of Fowling,” the Rev. H. A. Macpherson states that the Tuscan Fowlers capture large numbers of Terns as they pass along the coasts of Italy on their northern spring migration. “ It is chiefly in the month of May,” he says, “ that these slender and graceful birds appear in the marshes of Lucca, Pisa, and other districts of Western Italy. The engine employed for the capture of these birds is the ordinary clap-net, which is extended on the margins of the ponds and marshes which these birds visit in flocks. The birds are allured into the nets by the employment of captive individuals, which are fastened to the ground. As many as thirty and even forty birds are sometimes taken at a single pull of the net. The species which supplies the bulk of the victims is the Black Tern ( Hydrochelidon nigra). The rarer White- winged Black Tern (Hydrochelidon leucoptera), and even the Whiskered Tern (Hydrochelidon hybrida) are subject to the same miserable fate Four Black Terns are sold as a bunch for two soldi. Many, again, are hawked about the streets in a living state, in order that they may be sold for young girls to use as playthings.” White-Winged Black Tern The White-Winged Black Tern. 13 Family — LA RID/F. Subfamily— STERNINAL. White-Winged Black Tern. Hydrochelidon leucoptera, ScHiNZ. The White-winged Black Tern in its summer plumage is a very distinct species, and easily recognized from other Terns ; but in its immature and winter dress it might easily be mistaken for more than one species. It has occurred in the British Islands, chiefly in England. It has been recorded from seven or eight counties, especially those on the southern and eastern coasts, though it has more than once been taken in Northumberland and Yorkshire. It has not yet been recognized in Scotland. It was in Ireland, however, that it was first observed and identified, the specimen having been killed “ near the Pigeon- house Fort, Dublin Bay, in October, 1841.” This species breeds all over Southern and Central Europe, as far north as latitude 55°, eastward across Central Asia to (but not further than) China. In winter it migrates southward down throughout Africa, and through Asia across the Malayan Islands to Australasia. It is unknown, except for a couple of accidental occurrences, in the western hemisphere. Both the male and the female in breeding plumage have the head, neck, upper back (which are glossy), under side, flanks, under wing-coverts and axillaries all deep black ; the lower back and rump greyish-black ; lesser wing-coverts, vent, upper tail-coverts and tail pure white ; the greater wing-coverts, the secondaries (which are darker) and the white-shafted primaries (when unworn) pearl grey ; the webs of worn primaries black ; the inner webs of the four outer quills with a well marked narrow whitish streak down the centre ; bill dark red ; legs and feet scarlet; toes with much indented webs. Length f2> inches; wing 8‘2 ; tarsus '75, and middle toe with its claw i inch. Like the previous species, the White- winged Black Tern is a marsh Tern, and in its habits, food, and mode of nesting, the two are almost identical. The two species often unite in one colony, and make their nests close together in some inland marsh, although our present species may also be found occupying a locality apart from other Terns. Its nest is placed in the ver^’ same kind of situation as the Black Tern’s, and the eggs of the two, three in number, laid at the end of u British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs May or early in June, are inseparable by size or colour. Mr. Booth saw this species, in the Norfolk Broads, hawking, in company with thousands of Sand Martins, across the surface of the water, and during a whole afternoon kept up their pursuit of insects in precisely the same manner as the Martins. Small fishes and aquatic animals constitute additional items of this bird’s food. Maggots have also been found, on dissection, in its stomach. The plumage-changes that the White- winged Black Tern undergoes, after leaving the nest till it attains maturity, take place in the same manner and at the same seasons as in the last species. The nestling on issuing from the egg, about the beginning or middle of July, is covered on the upper side with a yellowish-brown down, mottled with black, and is of a uniform pale cinnamon-brown beneath. In a few weeks the down is succeeded by the bird’s first plumage, in which the forehead, sides of the neck, rump, under wing-coverts and all the lower surface are white ; the crown, nape of the neck, and a spot on the ear-coverts, are brownish-grey, or mottled with black ; “ the mantle, the scapulars and the wing-coverts dark slate-grey, with buff margins and brown sub-margins ” (Seebohm) ; after the spring moult, the back, the scapular region, the upper tail-coverts and the tail feathers are pearly or slate-grey, tipped or mottled with brown of lighter or darker shades ; primary- webs darker than in the adult ; bill brown. After the first spring and during the bird’s first summer, the brown-tipped feathers of the upper surface as just described pass gradually away, chiefly by a change of colour, though a few feathers perhaps moult, leaving only the margin of the wing mottled ; the black of the under side shows a brownish tinge, and the tail, especially towards the tips, is grey. The rump, between the grey back and grey tail, is white With its first autumnal moult is assumed the winter garb of this species, which is described as follows by Mr. Howard Saunders : — “ in the latter part of July, when the moult begins (in Europe), the bird is curiously parti-coloured, the new feathers of the head, neck, and under parts being white, and those of the back grey ; the adult birds have white tails, but in the minature ones it is grey, which serves to distinguish them. Later, the under parts, including the under wing-coverts and axillaries, become white, the crown of the head and the nape being merely mottled with black ; but by the following April the black colour has reappeared to a considerable extent, especially on the axillaries ” — the next spring moult bringing the Tern into its full nuptial dress. The tail-feathers may remain for several seasons of a greyish, instead of a pure white. The present species is distinguished from the Black Tern at all seasons by its longer and more slender toes and claws, and the deeper indentations of the Whiskered Tern t Summer The Whiskered Tern. 15 webs. Immature birds have always the white rump, which in H. nigra shows grey continuously from the back to the tail. The full summer plumaged bird on the wing can scarcely be mistaken for any other species ; its white wings are a sufficiently conspicuous mark on the upper surface, while seen from beneath the black under wing-coverts distinguish it from the Black Tern, whose under wing- coverts are grey. Family — LARID^. Subfamily — .S TERNINAF. Whiskered Tern. Hydrochelidon hybrida, PalL- This Tem, which derives its name from the line of white which runs from the base of the upper mandible below the eye to the ear-coverts, is a very rare visitor to our shores. It has been seen or taken only a few times, more often in the south-western than in the other counties of England. A specimen shot in 1836, in Dorsetshire, was the first British record; four or five other occurrences complete the tale of English specimens. It has been taken, though very rarely, both in Scotland and in Ireland. The Whiskered Tern is found in summer across the whole of Europe and of Asia (except Formosa) below 55” N. latitude. In winter it migrates through the Malay Archipelago into Australia as far as 35° S. latitude, and throughout Africa to the Cape of Good Hope. As it has been recorded from the Orange Free State in full breeding dress in December, flying over reed-pans, it may be presumed that some individuals remain resident in South Africa, naturally assuming the breeding dress in the summer of their latitude. As seen on the wing the upper parts are slate-grey, the under side white, and the nape black. The adult male and female are alike, except that the latter is slightly paler. In breeding garb they have the crown of the head, nape of the i6 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs neck, the flanks and the abdomen deep black ; the forehead, the sides of the face and neck, the axillaries, the vent, the under tail- and under wing-coverts white ; the whole of the back, the rump, the upper tail-coverts, the tail, the wing-coverts and the throat varying from grey to slate- grey ; the chest and breast darker. The white-shafted primaries dark slate-grey (except when quite unworn and “frosted”) ; the “ inner webs of the outer pairs of primaries white on the upper and greater part of the inner webs” (Saunders). Bill dark red; feet scarlet, fading after death to orange. Length lo^ inches ; wing ; tarsus 'g. The Whiskered Tern may be looked for, in England, in the early summer, when it is on its northern migration to its breeding stations, and again in the autumn when on its return southward to its winter quarters. Like the other Marsh-Terns, the Whiskered Tern builds in large colonies in inland lakes, ponds and marshes ; constructing a nest similar to that described under the two preceding species. This Tern will, however, sometimes not take the trouble to make a nest of its own, but will, as Canon Tristram observed in Algiers, occupy, as a colony of them were doing on the large lakes there, the nests of another bird — the Eared Grebe — just as they had been shortly before left by the young of their builders. Mr. Anderson has given an interesting account of the breeding of this bird in Fyzabad, in July, 1867 “We had hardly gone beyond the town,” he writes, “ when our attention was attracted by the ontcry of a vast assembly of these handsome Terns, that were flying over a gheel or swamp, about a mile in circumference and within a stone’s throw of the main road and of a village which overlooked the piece of water. My friend, who had a pair of glasses in his hand, called out that they were building nests on the swamp, which was one mass of tangled weeds and aquatic creepers, etc. . . . We were, however, soon assured that they were all actively engaged in carrying long wire- like weeds (some of them two feet long) from different parts of the gheel, and making huge floating nests on the surface of the water. On the 7th July we again visited the place, taking a small canoe with us The circumference of some of the nests I measured ranged between 3J and 4 feet, and they were about 4 inches thick. They were composed entirely of aquatic plants, and so interwoven with the growing creepers that it was quite impossible to remove them without cutting at the foundation of the structure. “ The eggs, as may be expected, are subject to the same endless varieties as those of the 5. hirundo (Common Tern) and S', arctica (Arctic Tern), but differ in being smaller, less pointed, and in the general colour being much lighter.” Canon Tristram notes that the Whiskered Tern remained through the winter and spring in small flocks on the Sea of Galilee, till the birds acquired their The Whiskered Tern. 17 breeding plumage, when they retired to the marshes of Huleh for nidification — the only species in the country remaining to breed. “The Sea of Galilee,” he says, “ is remarkable for the vast numbers of Grebes, Gulls and Terns which cover its surface in winter and early spring, while after April not a solitary example of a Natator can be detected. Well may birds swarm there, for the shoals of fishes are almost incredible. Masses of fishes, covering an acre or two, may be seen with their back fins above the water, looking, as the}^ move slowly in serried ranks, like the pattering of a heavy shower on the lake. Why all the birds disappear in May can only be accounted for by the absence of any secure breeding places near the lake, the shore being open, destitute of trees, marshes, or other cover, and on the east side forming a long bare range of bleak hills which come almost down to the water’s edge.” Dr. Sharpe gives the “ prevailing ground colour of the eggs, as greenish- grey, sometimes clay-colour, the markings being similar in character to those of the allied Terns, but rather more scattered and distinct, while in some examples the spotting and scribbling is very minute, and the underlying grey spots are more distinct than in eggs of H. leucopteraT The eggs vary in length from if to if inch, by about if inch in diameter, and are slightly larger than those of the two already described Marsh-Terns. The eggs are laid about the middle of May, and the young are hatched towards the end of June. The nestlings are sandy-yellow on the upper surface, mottled, striped, or spotted with black ; beneath they are white, with the throat sooty black. In its first plumage, as given by Mr. Saunders, the Whiskered Tern has the forehead white ; the crown and nape of the neck blackish-brown ; the upper parts pale grey ; the mantle mottled with brown and with warm cinnamon-brown edges to the inner secondaries ; tail slightly mottled and edged with ash-brown ; the under side white ; bill and feet reddish-brown. The larger size of the birds at this stage distinguishes them from the young of H. leucoptera. Before the beginning of the following year the brown markings have become greatly reduced, and after the spring, when a pigment change, or partial moult, takes place, the forehead and crown are seen to be white, the rest of the head and neck, and also the ear-coverts, greyish-black ; the back, shoulders and secondaries slate- grey, strongly blotched with blackish-brown in the middle and tipped with buff ; the entire under side white ; the tail feathers grey, margined with white ; the bill brown, red at the base, and the legs and feet reddish-brown. The first entire moult takes place in the second autumn, when the first winter plumage of the bird is assumed, which is paler on the upper side than in the D VoL. VI. i8 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. adult summer garb ; the forehead and under side are white ; the crown and the nape of the neck mottled with black ; the feathers of the shoulders, the inner secondaries, the tips of the wing-coverts and of the tail brown, with pale margins ; bill and feet reddish-brown. The adults in winter differ from the immature birds here described, by wanting the brown on the shoulders, wings and tail. The Whiskered Tern, in regard to its food and the manner of capturing it, differs little from the other Marsh-Terns. It lives chiefly on insects, dragon-flies, grasshoppers, etc., taken on the wing, and small fishes, frogs and newts pounced upon in shallow water. Family — LA RIDAL. Subfamily— S TERMING. Gull-Billed Tern. (jdochelidon anglica, MoNT. Although this Tem has never been but a rare visitant to Great Britain, and is abundant on the Continent, it was, strange to say, first described as a distinct species from a specimen shot in the county of Sussex, by that keen and accurate naturalist. Colonel Montagu, who described it in 1813, in the Supple- ment to his “ Ornithological Dictionary,” — the excellent and not unworthy forerunner of that erudite compendium of Ornithology “ The Dictionary of Birds,” by Professor Newton. It was at first considered to be a specimen of the Sandwich Tem — a species which had been described for the first time by Latham, in 1785, from a bird shot near Sandwich ; but Montagu’s coming into possession of one of the type specimens of that bird, given him by his friend Mr. Vaughan, to whom it had been presented by Dr. Latham, and his placing the birds side by side, occasioned “ the fortunate discovery that a distinct species, apparently more common [than the Sandwich Tern], has been erroneously considered to be that Gull-Billed Tern $ i Summer The Gull-Billed Tern. 19 bird.” The species, “ from the shape of the bill ” [in which the angle at the union of the two halves of the mandible is prominent], continues Montagu, “ is denominated Gull-billed Tern, a prominent character of distinction between the two ; and as it has originated in England we have added the more scientific name of Sterna angiica." As a matter of accuracy, however, this Tern was first discovered by the naturalist Hasselqvist, on the banks of the Nile during his travels in Egypt. “ One specimen of this species,” observes Montagu, in his original account of it, “ we shot in Sussex, and have known others to have been killed about Rye.” Since then nearl}'’ a score of individuals have been shot in England, chiefly in spring and autumn — the majority of them in Norfolk. No specimens have as yet been recorded from Scotland or from Ireland. Of these visitors to our shores, one dropped a fully formed egg when shot, another had well developed eggs in its ovary on dissection, and a third was in full breeding plumage, so that it is not improbable that it may yet be found breeding in this country. This species, which is much more a Sea- than a River- or Marsh-Tern, breeds in most parts of the temperate regions of both hemispheres. In the eastern hemisphere it is found in summer all over Europe below 55° N. latitude; but breeding only in Denmark and on both coasts of the Mediterranean (of Italy excepted) and the Black Seas. Elsewhere in Europe the Gull-billed Tern is a visitor just as it is in England. The individuals so summering, migrate to Northern Africa in winter. It breeds over temperate Asia and the south of China, whence in winter it spreads through India, Ceylon and Burmah to the Indian Archipelago and to Australia, where it has also been observed breeding. In the western hemisphere it occurs down on the eastern coasts as far as the south of the Argentine Republic ; but only on the coast of Guatemala on the western side of the hemisphere. The Gull-billed Tern differs somewhat in its places of resort from the Marsh- Terns, preferring the estuaries of rivers, sandy shores of the coasts, and salt lagoons, to inland fresh-water swamps and lakes— although it does frequent them also. The receptacle for its eggs is hardly a nest, but generally merely a hollow scratched in the sand or dry mud, with occasionally a few shreds of vegetable material laid in. Like other Terns, this species also builds in large colonies. “ Two is the usual number of eggs, ’ says the late Mr. Seebohm, from observations made by himself in a lagoon in Asia Minor, “ and I have frequently found three but never four. The eggs of this bird are by no means so handsome as those of Sterna cantiaca, nor are they on the average quite as large. A usual sized egg 20 British Birds with their Nests and Eggs. measures 2 inches by it?, inch. A smaller and rounder egg measures i*t5 inch b}^ inch, whilst an abnormallj^ large . . . one reaches the dimensions of 2if, inches by irjrfr inch.” The male and female are alike, except that the latter is somewhat smaller than the former, and has a slightly more slender bill. In the breeding season the forehead, from the nostrils, over the top of the head to the level of the eye, down to the nape of the neck, including the crest, jet black ; all the upper surface, including the tail (whose outer feathers are whiter) pearl grey ; primaries (of which the four outer are white shafted), when fresh moulted, pearl grey, but later in the season the tips and inner webs darker ; “ a distinct white wedge on the upper part of the inner web of the outer primary, but smaller and less defined on the succeeding flight feathers ” (Saunders) ; lower half of the lores, sides of the face, and the entire under surface of the body and wings, white ; bill black, sometimes red at the base of the lower mandible ; iris brown ; legs and feet reddish-black, the webs of the toes moderately indented. Length 141,^-15^ inches; wing 12-13, or more than twice the length of the tail, which is 5^-6, a character which distinguishes this Tern from other species ; as also the tarsus in being inch, or larger than the middle toe and claw, which together measure inch. The eggs are intermediate in colouration between those of the Gulls and Marsh-Terns, and provide another character, in addition to the form of the bill and the habitat of the bird, indicating the intermediate position the Gull-billed Tern holds between the Larince and the Sternina;. According to Mr. Seebohm, whose enormous collection of eggs gave him a better opportunity than most ornithologists for studying their various varieties, says that the ground colour is a yellow ochre, or stone colonr, of a lighter or darker shade, and occasionally a pale greenish-brown, with small greenish, or reddish-brown, roundish spots or irregular blotches, those underlying being paler and greyer (simply because they are, as in all eggs, not on the surface, but underneath a thin layer of shell) ; as a rule the markings are evenly distributed, or they may be more agglomerated round the larger end. The eggs are laid about the beginning of June, and the young are mostly all hatched before the end of July. The downy chicks are bufify or stone- white, mottled and striped with brown, or dark grey, on the top and sides of the head, and along the back : the under side is uniform greyish-white. The fully fledged bird differs from the summer dress in having all the region which is then black distinctly buff-tinted white, streaked with greyish-black on the crown and mottled on the nape ; the eye set in a darker lozenge ; the upper side, especially between the wings, distinctly fawn colour, deepeuing (in a week or The Gull-Billed Tern. 21 two) into brownisli-buif, the feathers centred with brown ; the wing quills darker than in the adult in summer garb ; bill, legs and feet reddish-brown. By the time the bird is two months old, the brown and the buff have con- siderably diminished, and during the first spring and summer pigment changes occur, which result in its garb differing from the above only in the diminution of the brown and buff, and in the darkening of the streaks on the head, a plumage almost like that of the adult in winter, in which the brown becomes black ; the back is slightly paler than in summer; the quills (which are fresh and “frosted” in November and December) are hoary grey, and the outer tail feathers whiter than in summer. The absence of a dark bar across the lesser upper wing- coverts, distinguishes the young of this species from those of the Arctic or the Sandwich Terns. The adult Gull-billed Tern may at once be recognized from the Sandwich Tern, which it so nearly resembles, more indeed than any of the other British species, by the great length of its hind toe. Mr. W. H. Simpson, who collected the eggs of this species in the lagoon of Mesolonghi, observes that the greater number of the nests were placed “ in the raised outer edge [of the islets], which, in case of flood, would remain longest high and dry. The eggs were deposited upon the sand or soil, in a depression slightly lined with a few bits of dead grass, and are not easily detected, as their colours blend with surrounding objects. The birds appear to commence incubation simultaneously, or nearly so, as most of the nests contained eggs pretty fresh. They did not evince the anxiety which many Terns do about their eggs, but simply contented themselves with flying in a body at a great height over the islands. I strongly suspect that in these hot countries the Terns do not care to sit upon their eggs throughout the day, and this may be the reason why one often sees flocks of S. anglica feeding miles away from head quarters.” Mr. Dresser, who observed this bird in Texas, gives the following ver}^ excellent account of it : — “ I met with it,” he says, “ breeding in considerable numbers on Galveston Island ... In habits it reminded me a good deal of the Sandwich Tern, but was rather more Gull-like, and its call-note especially bore resemblance to that of a Gull. I found it breeding in colonies ; and when I was engaged in examining the nests, the parent birds flew anxiously round, uttering loud cries. As a rule the nests were mere holes scratched in the sand ; but in some instances an attempt had been made to form a bed of straws and drift-stuff for the reception of the eggs, which were generall}^ three in number, though in one or two instances I found as many as four in one nest, whereas in Europe two or three are the complement. I did not notice these birds fishing ; the}' 22 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs seemed to be feeding chiefly on insects, of which there were qnantities in the neighbonrhood of the breeding colonies. On the wing they were exceedingly swift and elegant ; and their flight seems more powerful than that of most of the smaller species of Terns. According to Von Heuglin this Tern feeds chiefly on Orthoptera of all sorts and sizes, Libellulida , Coleoptera and Lepidoptera, occasionally also MutillidcB, which it catches with ease on the wing. When there is a prairie- fire it is found there, with many other species of birds, darting into the dense smoke in pursuit of locusts ; and it also catches young birds and small mammals, and is often seen fishing amongst the surf. Mr. O. Salvin, who met with it in Algeria, says that it feeds over the grass-fields and open land, hovering and descending, as it does on an English coast over a shallow, its food being grass- hoppers and beetles instead of sand-eels.” Herr Gatke observes in the “ Birds of Heligoland,” that “ the great difference in the mode of life of this species from that of its near congeners could not fail to attract the notice of the observant Heligolander, and he has christened the bird accordingly [Lunn-kerr, or Land Tern]. Any one who, day after day, has watched the Terns darting down into the sea from great heights, so that the foam spurts high into the air, must feel particularly impressed to see a bird so similar in appearance roving about over the fields, suddenly dropping among the long stalks of the potatoes, and disap- pearing from sight. Such, however, is the only way in which the bird seeks its food on this island ; for it has never been seen fishing on the sea like the other members of the genus.” The note of this Tern in the breeding season has, by most of those ornith- ologists who have had an opportunity of listening to it, been described as resembling the “ laugh ” of the Gull, variously modulated, and, sounding doubtless differently to different ears, it has been recorded by different phonetics. The recording of the various notes of birds offers a large and interesting field to the ornithologist armed with a phonograph. Mr. Darwin, who procured a specimen at Bahia Blanca, in Northern Patagonia, says, “ I may here observe that many navigators have supposed that Terns, when met with out at sea, are a true indication of land. But these birds seem not unfrequently to be lost in the open ocean; thus one fMegalopteru^ stolidus) flew on board the Beagle, in the Pacific, when several hundred miles from the Galapagos Archipelago. No doubt, the remarks made by navigators, with respect to the proximity of land where Terns are seen, refers to birds in a flock, fishing, or otherwise shewing that they are familiar with that part of the sea. I, therefore, more particularly mention that off the mouth of the Rio Negro, on the Patagonian shore, I saw a flock [probably of this species] .... fishing seventy miles from Caspian Tern Summer The Caspian Tern. 23 land ; and off the coast of Brazil a flock of another species, hundred and twenty- miles from the nearest part of the coast. The latter birds were in numbers, and were busily engaged in dashing at their prey.” One of the present writers may perhaps be allowed to quote his own experience on this point, from “ A Naturalist’s Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago,” p. 12. “On the afternoon of the sixteenth day of weary beating from Anjer [in West Java], a pure white Tern suddenly appeared, and, circling about the vessel, produced quite a flutter of excitement. It was the lovely Gygis Candida, one of the Keeling Island birds, which our native boatswain declared never went far from home, and that, therefore, we must be near our destination. Several of the sailors ran aloft, and in a few minutes descried to the northward the crowns of the higher cocoanut palms on the southern islands. We straightway changed our course, for our skipper had evidently miscalculated our noon position, and, but for this timely pilot, would have sailed past in the night. At sundown the islands appeared from the deck as a dark uneven line, rising little above the horizon ; at ten o’clock we sailed into the anchorage.” Family — LARID/F. Subfamily — 5 TERN!NA£. Caspian Tern. Hydroprogne caspia, Pall. This bird was first discovered about hundred and twenty-eight years ago, on the margin of the Caspian Sea, and derives its name, therefore, from the locality in which it was first captured. More than a dozen specimens have been killed in England, the majority of them on the south and south-east coast; it has been recorded also from Yorkshire and from as far north as the Fame Islands. It has not been detected in Ireland or Scotland. 24 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. Wherever this species happens to stray, it can scarcely elude the notice of any one accustomed to observe our more Common Terns, on account of its large size (it is the largest species frequenting Britain), its short wings and its fine scarlet bill. That it has not more frequently visited this country is somewhat remarkable, for its distribution over the globe is very wide. Its northern- most breeding place in the Eastern Hemisphere is in the islands of Sylt, in the Baltic Sea, in about 6o° N. latitude. It is met with in summer to the southward of this parallel through- out Europe as far as the Mediterranean, on both sides of which its nests are to be found, whence it extends down the coasts of Africa. In Asia it breeds south of the above named parallel (but is absent from Japan), and is found along the shores of the Gulf of Persia, on the Caspian Sea, and on the salt lakes of Turkestan. Thence in winter it frequents rivers, jheels and tanks in India, but without breeding, though strangely enough, it has been found nesting in Ceylon, and has found its way to Australia and New Zealand, where it breeds also. In the Western Continent it has been taken from near the arctic circle down its eastern coasts as far south as Florida, yet on the western side it does not extend beyond California. The male differs from the female only in being slightly smaller and in having the bill of a paler red. Both have, therefore, in the breeding season, the head, from a point in line with the nostrils, extending below the eyes and over the crown to the nape of the neck, glossy greenish-black ; the mantle, the rump, the upper tail-coverts, the wing-coverts, the tail (whose feathers are white-shafted and have the outermost quills pointed and but slightly longer than the rest), and the primaries (whose shafts are also white), when freshly moulted, pearl- grey ; the latter are later in the season, when worn and rubbed, darker grey ; the margins of their inner webs and the entire web of the first quill slate-blue ; face beneath the black hood and the entire under surface pure white ; the bill scarlet, the legs and feet black. Total length 20 inches (more or less) ; wing 16 J ; tail 6 ; tarsus inch, and the middle toe with its claw 1*. The Caspian Tern prefers to breed in colonies not far from the sea; but, nevertheless, often frequents lakes and lagoons a long distance from the coast. The nest is a mere indentation in the ground, in which three eggs, sometimes fewer but never more, are laid about the beginning of June or the end of May. The eggs, which are larger than those of the Gull-billed Tern, are of a brownish-buff or stone-grey (often very pale) ground-colour, marked with small brown or blackish segregated spots, and others abundant and under- lying of a pale olive-brown colour. They vary in size from a little over or under 2^ inches in length, by a little more or less than if inch in diameter. The Caspian Tern. 25 The nestlings appear about the end of Jnne or beginning of July, clad in pale bnffy- or greyish- white down, mottled with grey or brown ; their under surface dull white ; and the bill, legs and feet yellow. The plumage of the young birds differs from that of the summer described above, in having the bill orange red, horn coloured at the tip ; the forehead, the crown, the nape and the lores white, streaked with black ; the ear-coverts and orbital patch black ; the mantle mottled and barred with brownish-black ; the wing-coverts and secondaries much marked with brownish-grey ; the tail mottled and barred with brownish-black ; the primaries ash-grey to brown at the tips ; back pearl-grey; rump and upper tail-coverts paler; the entire under surface pure white. During the first autumn, and the first spring and summer of the bird’s life, a few feathers are probably moulted ; but the change that takes place in the colour of the plumage is due chiefly to a pigment change in the feathers. During this interval the principal change that occurs is the loss of the mottled and barred markings of the mantle and tail. Mr. Saunders gives the following description of the young at this season and before its first real moult, which is in the second autumn of its life. Beak dull red, horn coloured at the point ; the lores, the forehead, the nape and the top of the head streaked with white and black, the upper surface of the body varied with patches of ashy-brown and darker transverse bands ; the feathers of the tail have dark ends ; primary quill- feathers also dark ; entire under surface pure white. The winter plumage, which results from the autumn moult, is similar to that of the breeding season, but the feathers of the crown of the head and sides of the face are white, broadly centred with black. “On the third June,’’ writes Mr. H. Durnford, in the “Ibis” for 1874, “we walked from List, the most northern village on Sylt, to the nesting place of this species on the north-west coast of the island, half-way between the two lighthouses. There were two small colonies, some hundred and fifty yards apart, consisting of about ten and the other of about fifteen pairs of birds. They lay their eggs in the bare sand between the beach and the dunes, in a slight hollow about the size of an Oyster-Catcher’s nest, occasionally lining it with a few pieces of shell, no nest (and we saw about a dozen) containing more than two eggs, which is not to be wondered at, as they are robbed by boys from List on every possible occasion. There were about ten eggs on the ground, two nests with two each, others con- taining a single egg apiece, and a few empty The Caspian Tern is an exceedingly handsome bird, its bright red bill, when circling over one’s head, contrasting well with the dark coloured legs. Whilst approaching the nesting voL. VI E 26 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs grounds we were greeted with harsh and noisy screams. Their note is not unlike that of Sterna flnviatilis, but louder and more powerful. When they have young they are said to be extremely bold ; and the farmer told us that when, on one occasion, he was visiting them with some friends, a bird took from a lady’s hand a pocket handkerchief which she was waving over her head.” On the 29th of March, 1871, Dr. Mobuis visited the same breeding place, called Ellenbogen, on Sylt, and saw only seventeen nests, while in 1819 Naumann was able to find three hundred, and Dr. Boi^, at a later period, two hundred, showing a continual diminution of the colony. Gould says that he could always discover the eggs of this Tern, by the clamorous, cackling, screeching note which the bird constantly uttered while flying near the place where the nest was. He states also that he never saw it breeding in colonies, and unless they were nesting on a large island, he rarely met with more than a pair on an island. Mr. Dresser has given so interesting an account of the bird from his own experience, that we make no apology for the following extract from his great work “ The Birds of Europe.” “ This, the largest and most powerful of our European Terns, is almost essentially a frequenter of the sea, seldom occurring inland or on smaller sheets of water ; and it is said to wander less than its allies, being seldom found far from its nest during the breeding season. Where I have met with it on the coasts of Sweden and Finland, it is rather scarce than other- wise, and is found during the breeding season in single pairs, appearing unsociable in its habits ; but in places where it is common, it collects together in large numbers and breeds in colonies. When sitting, the large bill gives it a somewhat ungainly appearance ; but on the wing it is graceful and active in its movements, more so than the Gulls, though slower and not so buoyant as most of the other species of Terns. It is powerful and bold, and is strong enough to protect its eggs and yonng from any of the Gulls ; but at the same time it is said to take toll, like these, amongst its weaker feathered brethren, and to now and again catch and devour a young bird, or steal an egg or two. It swims more than the other Terns, but is not a very good swimmer. It feeds chiefly on fish, which it catches as they are swimming close to the surface of the water, pouncing down on them after hovering for a moment in the air ; but it is said never to immerse itself below the surface when plunging down after its prey ; . but merely dips its head in the water. When caught the fish is swallowed whole, head first ; and digestion is very rapid, so that before it has been long in the stomach it is reduced, all except the bones, to a sort of pulp.” Sandwich Tern The Sandwich Tern. 27 Family — LA RID^. Subfamily— S TERMING. Sandwich Tern. Sterna cantiaca, GmEL. This Tem derives its names of “ Sandwich ” and “ Kentish ” Tern from having been discovered (in 1784) in the neighbourhood of the town of Sandwich, in Kent — a locality near which it is now almost quite unknown. It regularly breeds in England, though far less abundantly than formerly ; for owing to persecution it is found now only in the few localities where it has been permitted to nest undisturbed. It breeds still also on Walney Island, off the Lancashire coast, and at the mouth of the River Bsk ; and on the Fame Islands on the east coast. Through the well directed efforts of a few naturalists, who have formed an association for the pro- tection of the sea birds which annually resort to the latter locality to breed, there were in June, 1892, as many as 2,400 nests of this Tern there; while in 1867 there were only some 200 pairs nesting. We understand that Walney Island has now also become a “ protected area,” as are the estuaries of the Dee and the Mersey, in which birds can not be shot at any season of the year. No doubt this, along with other rare species which occasionally resort there to build, will now have a chance of increasing on the western as well as on the eastern side of England. In Scotland the Sandwich Tern breeds at several places on the east coast and on some of the inland lochs. In Ireland there is, we believe, only one small islet in a lake between Killala and Ballina, in County Mayo, where the bird finds a safe nursery. We dare to name this locality because the proprietor. Sir Charles Gore, to whom every ornithologist feels grateful for his action, strictly preserves from molestation these birds, which are prone, on very little interference, to desert a breeding place. Beyond the British Isles the Sandwich Tern has been found along the whole of the western shores of Europe, south of the latitude of Denmark. In summer it frequents the coasts of the Black Sea, and breeds on the Caspian, thence it migrates to Asia to winter along the shores of the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and the coasts of Sind. Birds frequenting Western Europe winter in Africa, 28 British Birds with their Nests and Eggs. appearing down all the west coast to the Cape, and round on the eastern side as far as Natal. On the American coast it occurs off southern Massachusetts, but breeds only south of Florida, then wintering still further south, through the Gulf of Mexico (ranging across to Guatemala on the western side) to Brazil. The Sandwich Tern arrives on our shores early in the season from its winter retreat (in Northern Africa probably) generally between the middle of April and the middle of May, occasionally a few individuals have been seen as early as mid- March. According to Mr. Seebohm it arrives at the Fame Islands about the middle of April, “ to reconnoitre its breeding grounds ; every morning the birds pay an early visit to the islands, before they disappear to fish ; as the time when they begin to lay approaches, they lengthen their stay, until about a month after their arrival they have finally decided on a site for the colony, when they take up their permanent abode on the islands for the season.” They arrive in almost their full breeding attire. There being no distinction between the plumage of the two sexes, both have the feathers of the crown pointed and elongated into a crest ; the tail — its outer feathers about if inch longer than the rest — shorter than the wings and the hind toe very small. The forehead, from the nostrils to the level of the lower edge of the eye, over the top of the head to the nape of the neck black ; general colour of the upper side dark pearl-grey ; but the sides of the face below the eyes, the sides of the neck, the tips of the scapulars, and the bend of the wing, the upper tail-coverts and the tail, with the under side (including the under wing-coverts and the axillaries) pure white ; the under parts during life present a slightly roseate hue, vanishing at death ; the primaries (which are assumed freshly in March) darker, the margins of their inner webs with conspicuous white borders (which become worn off b}^ May) ; the four outer quills “ with white shafts, accompanied by a blackish band along its inner aspect to the end of the feathers, the rest of the inner webs white ; inner primaries and secondaries white, with more or less grey on the outer webs ” (Sharpe) ; bill black, tipped with yellow ; legs and feet black. Total length i6 inches; wing 12; tail 5f ; the leg (which is short) is i-rV inch, and the middle toe with its claw ia inch. The Sandwich Terns, which are somewhat smaller and feebler than the Caspian Terns, begin to nest about the end of May ; and being true Sea-Terns their breeding places are usually marine, though they have been known to breed in inland lochs even far from the sea. It can scarcely be said that they make a nest, for their eggs are deposited on the bare sand in slight hollows on some flat sandy or stony terrace, with or without vegetation ; sometimes the nest may be made on a drift heap or in a clump of Campion. Their “ nests,” as Mr. Seebohm has observed, are “ in diameter and depth of the dimensions of a cheese plate, and The Sandwich Tern. 29 they and their contents were so difficult to distinguish from the sand and fine gravel, that my first discovery of the colony was to find that I had ‘ put my foot in it.’” These terneries are often very large and the nests so close together that it is very difficult to traverse them without stepping on the eggs. Close by may often be found the nests of other species of Tern, of Gulls and of other sorts of water-fowl. The eggs vary in number from two to three : frequently only two, but never more than three, are laid. They differ considerably in size, and are, as a rule, conspicuously but very varyingly marked ; the ground colour being brownish-buff, cream, or oil-green, blotched or spotted with dark brown and black, with other spots, blotches and scrawls of a lighter shade, seen distinctly underlying the surface of the shell. Their size is from 2 inches to 2^ in length, and about inch in diameter. Only one brood is raised in the year. The length of incubation is about three weeks, at the end of which — from the middle to the end of June — the little downy chicks, pure white below, and buffy-grey mottled with greyish-black on the back and upper side, break their prison walls. The chicks are all quite alike despite the great variability of the eggs. Soon after the date of the commencement of incubation, the parent birds begin to lose the black head, and at their autumn moult they assume their winter garb, which differs from that of the summer, in having the feathers in the upper part of the head white with only a median black patch ; those of the back of the head bluish black with white margins ; a black spot in front of the eye, and the nape streaked with black ; the roseate hue on the underside is slightly paler than in summer. The young birds in their first plumage are constantly to be seen in company with their parents throughout the remainder of the summer till about the end of September or beginning of October, when all together they take their migratory flight southwards. In the immature birds the bill is shorter than the head, is of a horn colour and yellowish at the tip ; the feathers of the nape are oblong and rounded, their garb differs from the winter attire of their parents in having the forehead with small brownish-black touches ; the upper part of the head and nape dull white, mottled with brownish-black and pale-reddish ; the fore part of the back and shoulders and the rest of the upper parts as in the adult, but every- where marked with reddish-brown barred with blackish-brown ; an ashy grey band along the lesser wing coverts ; the quills dark grey edged and tipped with white ; tail feathers white and tipped with dusky-white. The occipital crest appears only after the first moult, that is in the second autumn of their age. VoL. VI. K 30 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs, In September the young birds undergo a moult after which the “ upper parts of the head and nape are variegated with black and white. The forepart and sides of the neck with all the lower parts pure white ; as are the head, neck and rump, but most of the feathers there have a crescent at the tip. The forepart of the back, the scapulars, the smaller wing-coverts, are light greyish-blue, with similar black bars ; the secondary coverts unspotted and toward the end white ; the secondaries white with an oblong dark grey mark toward the end, the pri- maries and their coverts of a darker grey on the outer and a great part of the inner webs. The tail feathers pale grey, shaded with darker toward the end, where they are margined with white” (Macgillivray) . In their habits the Sandwich Terns differ very little from the species we have already described. Their food consists of fish-fry ; sometimes of shell-fish and small fishes, especially of the sand eels (Ammodytes tobianusj which live buried in the sand but rise to the surface often quite suddenly in great shoals, and when attacked dive as suddenly to the bottom, again seeking safety in the sand. The Sandwich Tern is almost constantly on the wing, on the outlook for food and every little while uttering a harsh and grating cry audible a long way off. The Sandwich Tern, when its eye catches sight of its prey, dashes down perpendicularly into the water, though rarely immersing its whole body, whence it emerges in a few moments successful. If the object of its attack should move away from the surface the Tern will with a quick and easy evolution recover itself, and instead of striking the water, will sail over the spot and ascend again into the air. When shot on the wing it falls gyrating to the ground, reminding one much of the “tumbling” performed by many species of Rhipidura, due, as Sir William Jardine long ago pointed out, to the small, light bodies being greatly supported by the long tail and expansive wings. Sandwich Terns make their appearance in Heligoland, according to the observations of the patriarchal ornithologist of the island, Herr Gatke, “ during the second half of April and until the middle of May, when they may be seen chasing one another about, in pairs, in the bright sunshine, at heights of from five hundred to a thonsand feet, amid frequent utterance of their loud shrill cries, often, indeed, their ealls alone are audible from heights to which the eye vainly endeavours to penetrate. These are undoubtedly breeding pairs from the coasts of Sleswich-Holstein and East Frisia, which rejoicing in their recent union, thus gaily disport themselves, but a few minutes being required to take them baek to their home. “ Somewhat later the same birds are met with in much larger numbers. They then come in swarms very elose to che Sand-island, dipping incessantly down Roseate Tern § The Roseate Tern. 31 to the surface of the water in pursuit of sand-eels . . . The birds at first consume these themselves, but later on carry them to their young. The young appear on the scene very soon after their education is finished, arrayed in the mottled plumage of their early youth, and old and young may then be seen fishing near the dune until the end of the summer.” Family — LA RlDyF. Subfamily— S TERNINyE. Roseate Tern. Sterna dougalli, MoNT. This very beautiful Tern was discovered on the 24th July, 1812, by Dr. McDougall, of Glasgow, in the Cumbrays, two flat rocky islands in Milford Bay, in the Firth of Clyde, and was described in the following year by Colonel Montagu, in the Supplement to his “ Ornithological Dictionary,” already referred to on a former page. “ On these Islands the Common Tern swarmed, and,” says Montagu, “ the first of the new species was shot, by accident, by one of the Doctor’s companions, and happening to fall close to him on the rocks he was attracted by the beautiful appearance of its breast ” ; and, as Dr. McDougall pointed out, it was, in the air also, easily discerned “ by the comparative shortness of wing, whiteness of plumage, and by the elegance and comparative slowness of motion ; sweeping along or resting in the air almost immoveabloj like some species of the Hawk ; and from the size being considerably less than that ” of the Common Tern. Of the specimens which formed the types of this species, one is in the British Museum, and two are in the magnificent collection, bequeathed in 1851 to the city of Liverpool by Lord Derby, and now in the Free Public Museums. One of the latter passed into the Xlllth Earl’s celebrated Museum, by presentation to him by Colonel Montagu, and two were purchased by him at Dr. McDougall’s sale, as the following MS. note, preserved in Liverpool, in Lord Derby’s hand, indicates ; — 3-2 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. “ In my specimens, which were those preserved by Dr. McDougall and procured for me at his sale, the upper [outer] feather of the tail exceeds the next to it by about three inches, and the wings by three and a half in the male, in the female b}' about half an inch less. A third specimen was given me by Colonel Montagu.” After Colonel Montagu’s discovery it was found that the Roseate Tern, which had been mistaken in several of its resorts for the Common Tern, was breeding on other places on the Scotch coasts * ; in the Irish Channel, near Belfast ; on Foulney and Walney Islands, on the Lancashire sea board ; on the Scilly Isles, and on the Fame Islands lying off the Northumberland coast. Most of these stations are now deserted ; but as late as 1864, Mr. J. E. Harting found the species on Walney, and in 1865, Mr. Howard Saunders observed a single pair there. In the “ Zoologist,” however, of 1897 (p. 165), the interesting announcement was made that the Roseate Tern was again a breeder in our islands. “ Your readers,” writes Mr. Potter, “ will be aware that eminent and leading ornithologists have for some years been of opinion that the Roseate Tern only visited our coasts as a casual summer migrant, and this has been so stated in all recent works on British Birds .... However, for the past few years I have known of a colony of these birds nesting annually in Britain ; but, of course, for obvious reasons I must refrain from naming the precise locality. In 1895 I sent Mr. J. T. Proud, of Bishop Auckland, specimens of their eggs, and informed that gentleman of the whereabouts of the locality, and last year he visited the place, saw the birds and obtained the eggs himself .... It is satisfactory to know that these rare birds have selected a portion of our islands for rearing their young where they are not likely to be much disturbed by man ; in fact, as can be supposed, it is far from the path of the ordinary tourist or collector, and it is to be hoped that those gentlemen, who are already aware of the habitat in question, will keep it secret for the sake of the birds and British ornithology.” The precise locality has not been published beyond that it is in Wales. It is to be hoped this species may yet again breed in Norfolk and in the Irish and Lancashire localities, where it was formerly in the habit of nesting. As to the range of this interesting bird outside the British Isles, Mr. Howard Saunders, our greatest authority on the Gulls and Terns, thus sums up our knowledge of its distribution in the “ Ibis” for 1896 : — “ It is a matter of common knowledge,” he writes, “ that the Roseate Tern annually visits certain ♦ The Culbin Sands, on the Mora}- Firth, have long been known to receive occasional visits from the Roseate Tern. Mr. O. A. J. Lee saw seven pairs in that localit}- in May 1887, and obtained fresh eggs of this species (r/. Harvie-Brown and Bnckley, “A Fauna of the Mora}- Firth,” Vol. II., p. 308). — H..A.M. The Roseate Tern. 33 portions of the coasts of the United Kingdom for the purposes of reproduction. It is an oceanic Tern, nowhere numerically abundant, and remains with us for a very short time, being the last of the Terns to arrive and the very first to leave, and the young are, consequently, very rare in collections. It is, moreover, unusually intolerant of interference, and if the Common Tern (^S. fluviatilisj becomes too numerous in its favourite haunts, it yields, almost without a struggle, and goes elsewhere. This has been proved, by Dr. Bureau, on the north-west coast of France. In 1890, I was surprised to find,* at Geneva and Lausanne, examples which had been obtained on Lake Leman, in May ; and I assumed that these were occasional migrants deflected from a supposed line of migration up the Rhone Valley from the Western Mediterranean, where, as already stated, the species was known to occur irregularly. No one has yet obtained the Roseate Tern on the coasts of the Iberian Peninsula, the north-west shores of Africa, or on the Canary Islands ; but it occurs in Madeira, as well as in the Azores. Passing westward, we find it in the Bermudas ; the West Indian Islands, generall}^ from the vicinity of Venezuela upwards; and along the east side of America up to Massachusetts ; not on the Pacific side, even where the continent is narrowest. Returning to the eastern hemisphere, the Roseate Tern has been taken at the Cape of Good Hope and in South-eastern Africa ; breeds on the Mascarene Islands, Ceylon and the Andamans ; can be traced by Tenasserim, Malaysia, and the Moluccas to Australia, and even to New Caledonia — its most eastern breeding place ; while it ranges along the China Seas to the Loo-choo Islands, wandering to Hitachi, Japan. “ Now it will be seen,” continues Mr. Saunders, “ that there are two very important gaps in its distribution ; no authentic specimens being known from West African waters, between Madeira and the Cape of Good Hope, on the one side, or between the Mediterranean and the Indian Seas on the other. But when — as Mr. Whittaker has shown — a colony exists on the coast of Tunisia, it seems not improbable that the line of continuity should be sought eastward, along the coast of Africa, and southward, down the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean. It is quite conceivable that the Roseate Tern may not 3reed on the Islands of the Red Sea, because there, as well as at the Laccadive Islands and along the Malabar coast, we find — thrust in like a wedge — 5. albigena, an allied species, which may prove inimical to S. dougalli, just as S. fluviatilis is, under certain conditions, further north. But it strikes me now that if a look-ont is kept for the Roseate Tern along the Red Sea, in April and again in September, not omitting the Persian Gulf — for the bird may perhaps try the Euphrates \’^alley route — we ought before long to learn more about the somewhat ni3^sterious distribution of this species. 34 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. Perhaps our northern birds may go no fnrther south than the basin of the Mediterranean in winter.” The Roseate is the last of the Terns to arrive in the British Isles, and not till about the beginning of June need it be looked for. The following is a description of the adults — of which both sexes are alike — in breeding plumage ; — crown and hind neck deep glossy black, with blnish reflections ; back and upper surface of the wings delicate bluish- grey ; primaries darker, the inner margins of their webs “ with conspicuons white borders, which extend to the extreme tips and even slightly ascend the outer webs ; the outer webs and the lines parallel to the inside of the white shafts black to grey, according to the amount of frosting ” (Sannders) ; the rump and upper tail-coverts paler; the long onter tail feathers quite white; the rest of the plumage white; but the under side and fore neck of a roseate hue, which fades greatly after death; the long and slender bill brownish-black, orange at its base ; the legs and feet orange- red. Total length 15I inches; wings 9J ; tail 7^; tarsns Aths, and middle toe with its claw I inch. The wings are long, narrow and pointed ; the tail long, very deeply forked, the lateral feathers attennated and extending about three inches beyond the tips of the closed wings. The dnties of incnbation commence as soon as possible after the arrival of the Terns at their breeding place. Early in Jnne the Roseate Tern lays, according to different observers, one, two, three or four eggs. It is possible that these vary in number under varying conditions, and it may be that occasionally two birds lay in one nest. The more nsual number of eggs, however, is three. They are similar to those of the Common Tern, bnt are slightly smaller and more elongated. They are pale brown, or yellowish- or purplish-buff, with dark brown spots, which may be more or less thickly distributed, and may vary in shape and size. In length, according to Dr. Sharpe, they average from i'5-i‘8 inches in length by i '05-1 ‘2 in diameter. The Roseate Tern nests, as does the Common Tern, in company with its own species, never very far from the sea. The nest is a mere depression in the ground, sometimes with, and often without any lining. During incubation the male feeds the female, who keeps to her maternal duties. Mr. Blanc, a collector in Tnnis, has observed that this species, unlike most of the Tern family, “ instead of leaving its nest exposed, endeavours to hide it as carefully as possible under any scrub-plants or long grass it may find available, sometimes making a tnnnel-like passage or approach to the nest under the herbage. The nest itself is merely a depression in the gronnd, sometimes bare, at others thinly lined with grass bents, in which bnt one egg is deposited.” The Roseate Tern 35 The young are hatched towards the end of June, or early in July ; the nestlings being buff on the upper surface, spotted with white and grey, and pure white on the under side. They resemble more the nestlings of the Sandwich Tern than those of either the Arctic or the Common Tern. By the middle of August the chicks have become fully fledged, their plumage differing from that of the adult in summer, above described, in having the bill black, the forehead and crown white, .or cream yellow, streaked with black; the head and nape dark ashy greyish-black, streaked with white ; the upper side flushed with buff and blackish-grey ; a band on the wing blackish-grey, with white margins ; back and wing- coverts bluish- grey, marbled with greyish-black and 3'ellowish- white, crossed with subterminal arrow-headed bars ; “ dark grey centres to the inner secondaries ; more grey in the primaries, with less pronounced white inner margins ” (Saunders) ; tail with the outer webs of its feathers grey, except the outermost which are always white ; the throat, a collar on the hind neck, and the whole of the under side white ; legs and feet yellow. Older immature birds differ from the above in the loss, partly by moult of the feathers, and partly, and chiefly, by a pigment change only, of the ashy mottlings and striations, the arrow-shaped markings and the buff blush on the upper side. Throughout the remainder of August and, if the season be not too storm}% during all September, these birds may be seen along our coasts in company with their parents, which have now assumed the winter dress, which differs from their summer plumage in having the forehead mottled with white, and the under side pinkish-white. With them there will be always some of the previous year’s birds in their winter attire, which may be recognized, from that of the adult in winter, by the dark band on the wing- coverts. The Roseate Tern is one of the first of the Sternmce to leave us for a more genial climate. By the beginning of October many have gone and the rest are ready to leave. If, however, the weather has been stormy, they have often all departed before that date. As is well known. Terns are thrown into great disquietude by the approach of any intruder on their nesting ground, and will never disclose the site of their nest by returning home during his presence. Mr. Booth records the following ruse which he adopted in order to discover if a mate were present, on the Fame Islands, to a female of the Roseate Tem, which he had shot in the supposition that it was an Arctic Tern. “ In order to obtain,” he says, “ a clear and unin- termpted view of the whole assemblage at each station, after alighting at their nesting quarters, I made use of the tactics often successfully employed with the Crow family, or the larger birds of pre}\ In compaii}' with three or four of the 36 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. crew of the fishing- craft that had piloted us from the harbour, we approached one of the colonies, and selecting a spot, at the distance of about sixty yards, where rough stones and litter were scattered among the slabs of rock, a shelter that afforded ample concealment was, with the help of a piece of old sail-cloth, speedily rigged up. After completing the work and placing the finishing touches on my hiding place, the men withdrew towards the boats. A very few minutes had elapsed when the Terns, after following the disturbers of their peace for some distance, gradually reappeared on the scene, and after hovering round for a time without detecting the alteration that had taken place, the main body settled quietly down, though a few still continued on wing. The greater number of those that had alighted shortly betook themselves to their domestic duties, others were busily occupied in cleaning their plumage, and the remainder, after stretching and going through various contortions, buried their heads in the feathers of the back and sought repose. Ample opportunities for making good use of the glasses were now offered “ The tints on the breast of this species, when seen in life or immediately after death, are far deeper and richer than even the most enterprising colourists have ventured to depict ; the rosy hue, however, soon commences to fade, and in less than an hour a considerable alteration has taken place. The depth of the colouring doubtless varies considerably in different individuals, and also according to the season of the year It is, I am of opinion, only through May and the early part of June that the rosy tints are to be seen in their full beauty.” The Roseate Tern “ is at all times,” says Andubon, who observed it on the Florida Keys, “a noisy, restless bird, and on approaching its breeding place it incessantly emits its sharp shrill cries, resembling the syllables crah. Its flight is unsteady and flickering like that of the Arctic or Lesser Terns, but rather more buoyant and graceful. They would dash at us and be off again with astonishing quickness, making great use of their tail on such occasions. While in search of prey they carry the bill in the manner of the Common Tern — that is, perpen- dicularly downward, plunge like a shot with wings nearly closed, so as to immerse part of the body, and immediately re-ascend. They were seen dipping in this manner eight or ten times in succession, and each time generally secured a small fish. They usually kept in parties of from ten to twenty, followed the shores of the sand-bars and keys, moving backwards and forwards much in the manner of the Lesser Tern, and wherever a shoal of small fish was found, there they would hover and dash headlong at them for several minutes at a time.” Common Tern $ The Common Tern. 37 Family — LA RID/F.. Sub/amily—S TERMING. Common Tern. Sterna fiuviatilis, Naum. The Common Tern is the most widely distributed species of the genus along our shores ; especially is it abundant in Ireland and in the more southern parts of Great Britain. It occurs in summer in suitable localities on the islands all along the western side of Scotland (except the Outer Hebrides), as far north as the Firth of Clyde, the Sound of Mull and the Island of Coll. “ In our cruise [in the Outer Hebrides] in June and July,” writes Harvie-Brown and Buckley, in their volume on the fauna of that region, “ we may say we utterly failed to identify a single Common Tern anywhere to the north of the Island of Coll, and we paid more careful attention to the comparative distribution of the species than usual, even going so far as to shoot specimens at most of the localities visited where Terns were breeding.” On the northern counties of England and the eastern counties of Scotland it is very abundant, and is met with as far as the latitude of the Moray Firth, breeding on the shores, in the estuaries and far up the river valleys, even also on the inland lakes. It is to be met with on all the coasts of Ireland and on its interior loughs. The largest colonies in Britain are on Walney Island in the west, and on the Fame Islands on the east coast. North of the boundaries we have given, its place is taken by the Arctic Tern — the species next to be described. Beyond the British Isles the Tern is found on the coasts, estuaries and inland lakes throughout northern Europe ; in most of the Mediterranean islands and in Palestine — where Canon Tristram, to his surprise, found it breeding in the Lakes of Antioch, with “ no trace,” as he says, “ whatever of the White- winged Black Tern, so common on the coast, and of the Whiskered Tern, which would certainly be found in such localities in Algeria or Tunis.” The Common Tern is found throughout all temperate Asia, north of the Himalayan Range. It migrates in winter to India, Ceylon, and along the coasts of West and South Africa. VOL. VI. G British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 3« In the western hemisphere it only breeds south of the Arctic circle, whence as far south as Florida it is found on the coast and the inland lakes during summer ; migrating, in winter, to the coasts of Brazil ; but it is unknown on the western side of those continents. The Common Tern begins to arrive in Britain in small flocks, mostly of old birds, earl}'- in May, often during the prevalence of east wind. According to Mr. Booth, in spring and autumn, “ while on their way to and from their breeding quarters, these Terns may be observed, in considerable numbers, off various parts of our coast line, the first comers usually put in an appearance towards the end of April, and all through May a stream of birds in larger or smaller parties continues, at short intervals, to pass onward towards the north. The most general movement appears to take place about the middle of May, when numerous flocks are occasionally met with in the Channel, heading steadily towards the east ; after reaching the open sea their course is turned further north, some making for their breeding places on the shores of the firths and lochs of the Highlands, while the remainder continue their journey to more distant lands across the ocean.” The authors of “ A Fauna of the Outer Hebrides ” remark that however punctually Terns may make their first appearance, the actual time of their occupying the nesting sites “ varies greatly with the weather, as also to some extent in different localities, especially, as we have noticed, in the Hebrides and western districts of Scotland. “ It is not until some time after the first appearance of the Terns that the ova of many species of fish hatch out, nor do the fry at once approach shorewards and surfacewards. Many are hatched out on shoals and sand-banks, or even in deep water at a distance from land ; and, in a late season especially. Terns and other birds have to feed at a longer distance from their haunts on this account. .... The time of the laying of the Terns is coincident with the time of their food supplies being most accessible to them. The natural history of birds and fishes in similar respects is therefore closely connected with each other’s existence.” After their arrival these Terns spend a week or so in inspecting their whereabouts. They are, of course, very nearly, if not quite, in their full summer plumage ; and having mated they finally fix upon a breeding place. The male is indistinguishable from his partner. Both sexes have the forehead from the level of the nostril through the centre of the eye, from above the ear- coverts over the crown to the nape, black ; the chin, cheeks, sides of the head (ineluding the lower part of the eye and the ear-coverts), rump and upper tail-coverts, under tail-coverts, under wing-coverts and axillaries, white ; the rest of the under side vinous-grey ; The Common Tern. 39 the general colour above pearl- grey ; “ secondaries narrowly margined with white ; outer primary with a black outer web and a broad streak of very dark grey next the white shaft on the inner web, the rest of the inner web white, except toward the tip, where it is dark ash-grey; inner primaries paler grey, with white ‘wedges’ and dark grey margins to the inner webs ” (Saunders) ; the forked tail with the outer webs of its otherwise white feathers, grey — the outermost quills darkest ; bill (its tip dark corneous), legs and feet, scarlet. Length 15 inches; wing 10^; tail ; outer feathers 7^ ; tarsus ‘85 ; middle toe with its claw •95. This species prefers for its nesting place low lying sandy islands, little above the level of the water, gravelly or pebbly shores, and often bare rocks. The nest is merely a rock depression, or a hollow in the ground, occasionally lined with a few strands of vegetable fibre, dry grass, or sea-weed. The “ Migration ” Committee, in their various annual Reports to the British Association, note many instances “ of the irregularity of Terns’ behaviour at their nesting places, whether of the Arctic or the Common species ; and perhaps still more markedly in the Little Tern. This unsettled habit is worthy of remark. They often occupy and then abandon their nesting places for apparently no particular reason, for it is not invariably because they suffer persecution, though they are more easily scared than most other sea birds. In the Hebrides there are innumerable places where Terns might breed, having, to all appearance, equal advantages with the selected spots ; and possibly the very fact that they are naturally timid birds causes them to take advantage very frequently of a change of residence. In our “Migration Report” for 1886, we find, for instance, that a flock of Terns arrived at Little Ross, in the Solway Firth, remained a week and then left. In this case, however, they were of course only resting and feeding, probably without any intention of breeding there ; but in many other cases such movements take place suddenly, almost in mid-summer, or in the middle of their nesting season, the dates of which vary greatly at different stations. “ For purposes of identification during his cruise in 1887, Harvie-Brown often shot some Terns from a colony, both adult and immature, thereby bringing the whole Tern population close about his ears. He scanned all carefully, then lifting the dead birds carried them to a distance, and by throwing them up in the air, again brought the birds all around him. There need never be any difficulty in bringing Terns thus close enough for identification.” This sympathetic or inquisitive habit of the Terns is well known. If one of a flock be shot and fall wounded in the water, its companions immediately circle round in the air, uttering shrill screams and sweeping down close to it every few moments, as if encouraging it to rise. 40 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs The Rev. H. A. Macphersou, in his “ Fauna of Lakeland,” referring to the colony of Common Terns that frequents Walney Island, observes that “at the north end of the island the birds nestle on rough turf, but at the south end of Walney almost all the nests are placed among the sand-hills. There are exceptions to this practice. For example, in 1891 we found one nest of this species on the open beach, a hollow in the pebbles, lined with rabbit bones, containing two eggs ; a second nest was also placed on the beach above high-tide mark, lined with small sticks, and containing a single egg. But we saw most nests in and among the bents of the tall sand-hills, carefully watched by hundreds of parent birds, which hover with shrill cries over the head of an intruder. Sometimes a bolder bird than the rest returns to its egg within full view, but the majority circle overhead, or dart angrily downwards until their solicitude has been lulled to rest. A much smaller number nest at the north end, lining some slight hollow in the turf with a few stems of grass, while even the newly hatched nestlings, with instinctive dread of danger, crouch in the grass almost motionless save for respiration.” This Tern is very intolerant of cattle pastured in the site chosen on the ground, and will attack them with violence ; and if much intruded on will forsake the station. The Common Tern scoops out her nest-hollow, or lays her few straws in order on the ground, about the middle of June, and thereon deposits two, or not more than three, eggs, varying in size from i| to i? inches in length by about if inch in diameter. These have a general ground colour varying from “ stone-colour to ochreous-buff or olive-buff, with spots or drops of black often merging into con- fluent blotches, the underlying spots being faint purplish- grey and not very distinct. Sometimes the variation in the depth of the colour of the egg is very marked, and the ground colour is so deep a rufous-brown that the black markings are scarcely perceptible. The markings are generally distributed over the surface of the egg, but are sometimes congregated in confluent blotches round the larger end ” (Sharpe). The nestlings emerge from the eggs after about three weeks incubation — during which one or other of the parents sits on the eggs all day, except in very sunny weather, and never at night, or when it is wet, are they left uncovered — enveloped in a light brownish-yellow down, spotted or mottled with black ; the edge of the wing and underparts (except the throat, which is brown) being white ; the forehead brown and the feet yellow. They grow rapidly during the first few hours, and one finds it hard to believe that, as Macpherson observes, “ they were ever packed away within a small and round egg-case.” As the nestling grows older the brown spots and mottlings become more distinct. When fully-fledged the forehead is brownish-white, the nape and rest of the head, including the ear- The Common Tern. 41 coverts, are black ; the hind neck, the throat, the chest, the rump and upper tail-coverts white ; the shoulders and back bluish-grey, barred and mottled with greyish-brown ; a broad band on the upper wing-coverts brownish-grey ; over the upper parts there is generally a flush of buff ; tail feathers with the outer webs greyish-brown ; all the under side white ; bill corneous, sometimes scarlet, its base reddish-yellow ; legs and feet scarlet or reddish-brown ; these and the bill increase in intensity of colour, according to Saunders, up to the autumn, and often quite rapidly change in October to dark, not resuming the light colour till next spring, the rump and upper tail-coverts also becoming grey. During their immaturity — which lasts till their second and in some instances to their third spring — the forehead is white, and the grey on the wing-coverts becomes less conspicuous and extensive. “ On going up to a breeding place,” as Professor Macgillivray narrates, “ which may always be discovered from a distance, as some of the birds are to be seen flying about it, one is sure to be met by several of them, which hasten to remonstrate with him by harsh cries and threatened blows ; as he draws nearer, more of them leave their nests ; and at length they are all on wing, wheeling and bounding, now high, now low, at times coming quite close, and increasing their cries, which resemble the syllables cree, cree, cree-ae. When walking along the sandy shore — no bird nearer, perhaps, than a quarter of a mile — you may see one or two of them coming up from a distance, increasing their cries as they approach, then wheeling and plunging over and around you, and at length flying off. Proceeding at a moderate height, they stop now and then, hover a moment, dip into the water, and secure a sand-eel or young coal-fish. Many attend on the fishermen or others who are catching sand-eels for bait or food, to fish up those which slip from them disabled. On such occasions the}" are very vociferous, as they also are when they have fallen in with a shoal of fry. They never dive ; but I have often seen them alight on the water and swim a little, and sometimes a whole flock may be observed reposing on the placid bosom of the water, affording a very pleasing spectacle. They are very bad walkers, but on wing their move- ments are easy and elegant ; they skim along, bounding by with great speed, ascend or descend, deviate to either side, stop short in an instant, hover in one spot like a hawk, drop, dive or plunge headlong with surprising adroitness. Their mode of flying, however, does not resemble that of a Swallow, and they obtain the popular name of Sea-Swallows rather on account of their forked tail.” If a luckless young Black-headed Gull “ 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 42 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 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 ” (Macpherson). Hardly is the breeding season over when the old birds begin to put off their nuptial dress and assume their winter plumage, which differs from the former attire in having the forehead and the crown mottled with white ; the inner primaries black from loss of their “ frosting,” and the bill, legs and feet less brilliant red. During the autumn both old and young birds may be seen feeding together during the day, and sometimes under the moonlight, in large flocks, or sitting, during rough weather, on a sandy shore under the lea of a bank. In September they begin to leave the northern parts of the British Isles, on their southern migration, and before the middle of October all, except, perhaps, a few stragglers, who are to remain all winter, have betaken themselves from our shores to less sunless skies. Family — LA RID^. Subfamily — 6" TERNINA£. Arctic Tern. Sterna niacriiray Naum. The Arctic Tern closely resembles the Common Tern ; so much so, indeed, that for a long time the two were not recognized to be distinct species. It is not only an annual visitor, large numbers passing along our coasts, bound to other lands, but also a true British breeding bird. Its range within our islands is more northerly than that of the Common Tern, although the two mingle and nest together in one colony on the limits of their range. In England this Tern breeds on the Scilly Islands, and on the southern and f i Arctic Tern The Arctic Tern. 43 eastern coasts, at one or two points, but nowhere abundantly except on the Fame Islands, where there were, in 1892, on two members of the group, known as the Knoxes and the Wideopens, more than one thousand nests. The Arctic Tern, how- ever, is especially fickle in regard to its breeding place, it may be in very scanty numbers in, or even absent entirely from, a locality where the previous year it nested very abundantly. They behaved in a most unaccountable manner one year on the Fame Islands, as one ornithologist has recorded. “ They inhabited their usual breeding spots, laid their eggs and sat on them until a few were hatched, when suddenly every Arctic Tern left. They first left the ‘ Longstone,’ the island furthest from the shore ; about a week afterwards they left the ‘ Brownsman,’ which is one of the middle islands ; and ten days afterwards they left the ‘ Knoxes and Wide- opens ’ in the same way. There were very few young birds hatched on the ‘ Longstone ’ and ‘ Brownsman ’ when the old birds left, but a large number on the ‘ Wideopens,’ and not a single young Arctic Tern lived to fly away. The old birds stopped about the coast for some time, and seemed in a very weak condition During all this time the Sandwich Terns seemed to flourish as well as ever, and their young were all hatched out and took to the wing in as large numbers as usual.” The writer concluded that “ they lived off different food, chiefly sand-eels, while the principal food of the Arctic Tern seems to be a very small fish like a tiny herring.” Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Buckley have also recorded that in Hoy, in the Orkney Islands, “is a flat on which, twenty years previous to 1888, no Terns had bred. About that time a colony took possession of it and bred for fifteen successive years, when they deserted the place.” On the west coast of England the chief resort of the Arctic Tern is Walney Island, off the Lancashire mainland. In Ireland this species is a regular summer visitant, and is more abundantly met with on the west coast, though it is by no means infrequent on the eastern side. It nests on Lough Carra and Lough Mask, Co. Mayo, its sole fresh water breeding place in Ireland. In Scotland it is the most common species of Tern, and breeds (sometimes in association with the Common Tern) along all its coasts — especially of the islands — as far north as the Orkney and Shetland Islands. Outside Britain the breeding range of this species is very wide ; it nests all round the circumpolar regions of the northern hemisphere, up as high as within eight degrees of the pole, and perhaps higher, and as low as the 50th parallel of latitude on the European and the 42nd on the American side. During winter it spreads along the Mediterranean and down the western coast of Africa, rounding the Cape to the eastern side ; in the western hemisphere it migrates as far south 44 British Birds with their Nests and Eggs. as Brazil, crossing by the isthmus of Panama to the northern parts of Peru and Chili. The Arctic Tern arrives in this country on its northern migration, about the same date as the Common Tern, and is seen along all our coasts (though but rarely inland) towards the close of the month of April, and at a correspondingly later date at stations further north, some of whieh may not be reached till June or July. In the Orkney Islands, Harvie-Brown and Buckley, in their Fauna of that region, note that the Arctic Terns “ appear to arrive with remarkable punctuality between the 15th and 17th of May, there being only one record as early as May 6th.” After their arrival they congregate on rocks or on the shore, and for a time appear to have no object in life but the eatching of fish and the delights of feeding. Before the end of a fortnight, however, their separating off in pairs indicates that they have been pursuing other pleasures. The sexes are alike, and in their summer or breeding plumage the adults so closely resemble the Common Tern in general colour, that it is difficult to distin- guish the two species. The Arctic Tern, however, may be recognized by having the bill shorter and more slender than that in S', fluviatilis, and, in the old birds, of an entirely crimson colour, without any black on the culmen or at the tip, while in length it measures inches as against 2 inches in the latter. The tail is also longer (exceeding the closed wings) as well as more pointed ; the coral-red tarsus is at all ages shorter than that of the Common Tern, never exceeding the length of the middle toe (without its claw) ; the under surface is greyer, and the silvery grey of the back ascends higher on the neck, leaving only a narrow streak from the base of the bill below and behind the eyes white ; while the dark edging along the inner side of the white shaft of the primaries is narrower and less conspicuous. Length i4i inches; wing loj ; tail 7 to 8, with its fork 5 inches deep; tarsus *65 to '7; and the middle toe with its claw '85 inch. “ In its habits,” writes Mr. Seebohm, “ the Arctic Tern differs very little from its relative, the Common Tern. During its sojourn on our coasts it frequents rocky islands and sandy islets, and portions of the mainland coast that are both secluded and furnish a suitable nesting place. Like all the Terns the Arctic Tern is gregarious and lives in colonies, sometimes of enormous size, at others consisting only of a few pairs. On the wing it is even more graceful than the Common Tern. It looks the perfection of elegance as it beats along the coast, its long wings moved now slowly, now quickly, in a very Gull-like manner. Flocks of these birds usually hunt for food in company, flying along in a loose straggling manner. Every now and then one of them drops suddenly down into the water as if shot, and rises again with a little struggling fish in its bill. Sometimes it The Arctic Tern 45 will convey its capture to the nearest land, or not unfrequently sit on the water until it has eaten it. It is surprising with what force this bird descends ; and the splash it makes can be heard for half a mile across the water. Like the Common Tern it rarely perches on the ground, save at its breeding place, or when about to rest or sleep, and it seldom tries to walk far. The air is its true element, and its long narrow wings seem never tired of bearing its little body to and fro. It sometimes floats buoyantly on the water for a short time, but never dives.” The Arctic Tern is almost exclusively marine in its nesting habits, very rarel}^ going out of sight of the sea, and by preference selecting an uninhabited island. Messrs. Harvie- Brown and Buckley, however, state in their “ Fauna of Sutherland, Caithness and West Cromarty,” that it may be found breeding “ on the banks of a loch or river, some distance from the sea. One favourite site is in the vicinity of a moorland loch about four miles from Wick, and the birds in passing to and fro from the sea always follow the course of the river.” Its nest is generally a hollow scraped in the sand, without any soft lining ; sometimes a few small pebbles are laid round it. Mr. Godfrey, who observed it breeding in company with the Common Gull, and other species, in a little island, clothed with broad flag-like vegetation, in Loch Grumnavoe, on the mainland of Shetland, says that “ most of the Terns’ nests were situated on the grassy upper tract, and each was formed of grass and dry flags placed together without any tidiness or compactness ; but in sufficiently thick layers to keep the eggs dry.” It generally breeds in large colonies, with the nests close together. Mr. Trevor- Batty e, however, writes in the “Ibis” in regard to his Spitzbergen experiences: “ I never came upon any place where these birds were nesting in large colonies. Three pairs at the most would occupy one part of the beach, and their nests would be far apart ; then at the distance of a mile or so you might come upon a pair or two more. ... A pair of Arctic Terns were for several days anxious to nest within a few paces of our large group of tents, and were little disturbed by passers, only flying off for a few yards and then returning to the spot, where they made many false nests. The Arctic Tern, when preparing its nest, works with both the shoulders, using its feet only as a pivot. After turning round and scooping thus, it rests for a little with its bill at the ground near. On moving the bird after one of these resting-spells, I have found little stones and bits of shells in the bottom of the nest. I had formerly supposed that these and the small bits of sea-weed occasionally seen in a Tern’s nest, were there by chance, but I am not sure now that they are not put there by deliberate act. “ I do not think that the Skuas often succeed in robbing an Arctic Tern’s nest. One pair of Terns in Advent Bay did all the fishing in the neighbour- VOL. VI. H 46 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs hood of the nest, and the appearance of a Skua within half a mile was the signal for attack. Neither an Arctic nor a Buffon’s Skua has a chance with a pair of Arctic Terns. “ The Arctic Terns have a habit which I have described in ‘ Pictures in Prose ’ of Sterna minuta as observed in Norfolk ; but the account so exactly fits the Arctic Terns that I may be forgiven, perhaps, for repeating it here : ‘ Returned from its quest the bird, with a fish in its bill, circles round and round and lower and lower over its mate, and presently drops down beside her. Then he begins a series of extraordinary evolutions. With head thrown back, wings drooping and tail cocked straight up, he struts — no other word expresses it — about in front of his mate. The attitude, a most comical one is exactly that assumed by the ‘ Laughing Jackass’ Kingfisher when laughing. He jumps at his mate as if daring her to take the fish. Then he will fly round for a bit, only to settle again and repeat the play.’ ” The bird feeds largely on pteropods, the stomach of one dissected by Mr. Battye being full of these ; still higher in the Arctic regions an amphipodous crustacean fAnonyx nugaxj appears to form its chief diet. On our own coasts small fishes are the staple of its food. Captain Fielden records that during the Arctic expedition of 1875-76, during which, acting as naturalist, he collected a large mass of most valuable observations on the zoology of the inhospitable regions traversed by the expedition. “ On August 2ist, [1875] we found,” he says, “eight or ten pairs [of this species] breeding on a small islet off the north end of Bellot Island (Lat. 81° 44' N.) : the land at this date was covered with snow ; and on the islet it lay about three inches deep. In one nest I found a newly hatched Tern ; it seemed quite well and lively in its snow cradle. The parent birds had evidently thrown the snow out of the nest as it fell ; for it was surrounded by a border of snow marked by the feet of the old birds, and raised at least two inches above the general level. The Terns of this islet were rather shy, none coming within range till I had handled the young one. There seemed to be abundance of fish in the pools between the floes, as the old birds were flying with them in their mandibles. The stomach of the female which I killed was empty ; but that of the nestling contained remains of fish.” The Arctic Tern begins to lay in the beginning of June and deposits two to three eggs, two perhaps more commonly than three, very similar to those of the Common Tern. They are, however, slightly smaller and more pear-shaped, somewhat more spotted than blotched and the ground colour is darker. It takes a very good oologist indeed to separate the eggs of the one and of the other out The Arctic Tern. 47 of a mixed heap of both. From their excellenee as an article of food they are gathered in enormous numbers for the market. The nestling of the Arctic Tern, which is hardly to be told from that of the Common Tern, has the back marked with black ; forehead and throat black ; beneath white or isabelline, with some brown on the flanks and hind abdomen. “ When its breeding places,” writes Dr. Macgillivray, “ are invaded it evinces great anxiety and petulance, flying up and meeting the intruder, screaming out its creaking cries, hovering and bounding around him, sweeping close to his head, and sometimes, though very rarely, hitting him with its wings.” The young birds remain close to the nesting place till they are fully fledged. They have then the feathers of the upper surface, wings and tail pale pearl-grey, with subterminal bars of sandy-buff ; a dark grey band on the upper wing- coverts ; the forehead white, the hind part of the head and the ear-coverts greyish black, or mixed with whitish spots ; the cheeks, back of the neck and the lower parts buffy-white, sometimes tinged with pearl blue ; feet for several months yellowish, afterwards brown ; the bill yellow at the base and corneous at the tip. Young Arctic Terns may be distinguished — a by no means easy task on a general survey — from the young of the Common Tern, by the length of the tarsus and by the larger amount of the white colour on their outer primaries. The young birds are hardly well fledged till they begin to lose, generally by pigment changes, occasionally by moult, the buff of the upper surface for a cloudy white, while the dark brown or greyish black bars become paler. The forehead and crown are then nearly white ; the under-surface white ; the bill and feet black. After their first spring the black of the head is much mottled with white. After their first true moult in the second autumn, the birds assume a dress differing from the adults’ winter plumage in having the crown and forehead almost white ; the dark grey band on the upper wing-coverts continues as in the younger plumage, but there is more grey on the outer webs of the tail feathers; the bill and feet are black. The moult of the following spring brings the young Arctic Tern into its first nuptial dress, above described ; while after its next autumn change, following immediately after the breeding season, it assumes its first adult winter garb, which differs from its just discarded dress by the black on the forehead and crown becoming mottled with white, while the under surface becomes whiter, and the bright red of the bill and feet loses its brilliancy. At the end of the breeding season the young birds, after they have taken charge of their own destinies, very often assemble together till August when they begin to migrate 48 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs southward in advance of their parents. On their return the following year, they again keep very much to themselves, taking to a rock or a sand bank out at sea, and not intruding on the breeding colony. The migration of the Arctic Terns to a southern latitude may be observed from August to October, — a date at which all the Terns, except those that have by some accident been detained, have left our shores. Family — LARIDAl.. S7ibfamily—S TERNINFF. Little Tern. Sterna 7ninuta, Linn. This beautiful Tern is the smallest of all the European species, being only about half the size of the Arctic Tern ; and is less numerous in Britain than the other species already described. In former times it had more widely distributed breeding places than now ; for in many localities where it once nested it is to-day quite unknown. It breeds along the east and west coasts of both England and Scotland as far north as the Orkney Islands. Its chief nurseries in England are the Fame Islands, where it is, perhaps, more numerous than anywhere else in our islands ; it occupies a few sites on the Norfolk and Suffolk coasts ; and nests also on Romney Marsh, and on Walney Island on the west. Of the two species breeding in Romney Marsh, the Common and the Lesser, “ the latter is by far the more numerous,” writes Mr. Boyd Alexander, “ but the numbers of both have sadly diminished of late years. Both species keep separate in their breeding haunts, the Lesser Tem preferring rather the close proximity to the sea. The restricted breeding area taken up by the Common Terns is distinctly prejudicial to the safety of their eggs. The children of the fishermen and coast-guard ofi&cers soon discover these spots, and the eggs are robbed right and left for purposes of eating. Over these places sheep have invariably been feeding, and where they have poked Little Tern ' ^ ^ ' '■■•' *.j* ■"■ V./ ■ . •■■ •. . ,l^‘ _ ..’ .. > «• - "-t.Ti '*. f “ -r :c-o.r-- ■ .< . . 14^ “ ,-i-.'. wTBPP .^. fj.,. v.-,^*, ^ V *- •*» .^- ”" idOoP' ^ * ♦ » ; .'s#i«^ ■■ •-'^. ■ ,:f -3>>: - ■'■o A' • -AW^'Jg • . < _ \**.i * “■*' ~ • 1%jv4 Or A- ^•1 ^ >11 3'^ •■ . j" T ; .;» -i?^' i ■ I ».. ^*'.% , ;iy V>4 The Kittiwake Gull. 103 found, and ranges southward as far as the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the eastern side, and the Kurile islands on the Pacific sea-board. In winter it migrates southward, but many flocks remain in the more temperate parts of its range throughout that season. It reaches as far as the Mediterranean and along the west coast of Africa, and in the American continent to the south of Carolina on the one side, and of San Francisco on the other. In size and plumage both sexes are alike. In the end of March the adults, when they are on their northern journey and making for their skerry nurseries, are coming into their full nuptial dress. At this season the head, the entire neck down to the upper back, the rump, the upper-tail coverts, the tail and the entire under side are pure white ; the mantle dark lavender grey ; the scapulars and secondaries tipped with white ; in the wing — which is pointed and extends for an inch and a half beyond the tail — the primary shafts are ashy ; “ quills chiefly grey, but the outer web black in the first, grey in the others ; terminal portions of first to third primaries black ; fourth quill with extreme tip white, surmounted by a black bar, and the fifth similar, with a narrower bar ; in the sixth there is, sometimes, a subterminal black bar varying in breadth and at other times a mere black speck the size of a pin’s head on the outer web, while in mature birds the entire feather is spotless grey, with whitish inner margins, as are the succeeding primaries and the upper parts of all ” (Saunders) ; bill pale greenish yellow ; legs blackish brown, toes darker ; ring round the eye rich yellow. Length 17 inches; wing i2i ; tail 5; tarsus ; middle toe with its claw, 2. The Kittiwakes begin in the middle of April and on to the end of the month, and into May, to construct their rather large nests of mud, sea-weed, fresh-water algae or grass, placing them on the ledge (often a quite narrow one) of the precipitous rock the colony may have chosen — which they return to year after year. So narrow, as Macgillivray remarks, are the ledges they choose, that the nests seem “ stuck against the face of the rock like those of Swallows.” They build also in caves in the cliffs, and occasionally on the grass — -in all these situations often in association with Little Auks and Gullemots. Very often storms and rain-deluges wash away these nests off the rocks, with the result that their breeding season is greatly lengthened. The Kittiwake lays two to three eggs of about, on an average, 2i inches in length by inch in diameter, spotted pretty uniformly all over with dark brown and purplish-brown (the spots beneath the surface) on a gronnd which varies from white, through yellowish- or greenish-white and olive-green to purplish- brown. The surface of the shell is less polished than in most other Gulls’ eggs. 104 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. Buckley and Harvie-Brown say that “ before beginning to make their nests the Kittiwakes do not frequent the rocks much, but sit in flocks on the water jnst below. When forming their nests one bird seems to remain at home to guard the materials collected, generally sea-weed of some sort, while the other forages for it. As soon as the bird arrives with the weed, it drops it on the ledge, and the other takes it up in its bill, places it where it wants it, and then stamps it down. After a short rest and a few little interchanges of an amiable nature, the first bird drops lightly off the ledge and flies off for more material. Every now and then a bird will commenee its cry of ‘ Kitti-ake, Kitti-ake^ which is taken up by the others near it until the noise is quite deafening, A stranger lighting near the nest of another bird is instantly driven off, and this occasions another outcry of ‘ Kitti-ake.' A bird in immature plumage, but not of the year, was not allowed to land on the ledges, but was driven off immediately it tried to settle.” The Kittiwake incubates its eggs for about a month, at the end of which time, the little chicks emerge covered with long down, buffish-white everywhere except on the back and thighs which are dark-grey, margined with creamy yellow ; bill bluish-black, legs and feet lead-blue. These little ereatures are bound, on account of the site of the nest, to remain in or close to their birth-spot till they have become fledged. During their tender months they are assiduously fed by their parents. Mr. Harvie-Brown has recorded some notes sent him by Mr. Watt of Skaill, in the Orkneys, that when these Gulls are building their nests, they are in “ constant flight from earl}^ morn until late at night, taking a track one way coming from the headlands, and another returning. They pick up a fresh-water weed, that is thrown up on our loch, for the purpose of making their nests soft and comfortable. When their young are out the same flight eontinues to and fro. I coneluded that it was with food for their young, so shot one to see what it was. The crop was full, and on opening it, was astonished to find a mass of Daddy-long-legs, like, at first sight, a ball of worsted.” “ The young Kittiwake is fed in a manner something similar to a pigeon. The old one arrives and sits on the edge of the nest, its neck largely distended with food, remaining there for some time as if ruminating. Presently she puts her head down and shakes herself, probably as soon as she feels the food is sufiiciently macerated ; she then opens her mouth and the young one puts its bill into hers, and takes out the food, and this is done until it is satisfied. The old bird never feeds the young until she has sat some time on the ledge, however importunate it may be, no doubt because she feels the food is not in a fit state for it to digest easily ” (Harvie-Brown). The Kittiwake Gull. 103 “ The most interesting period of the Kittiwake’s life,” writes Seebohm, “ is when it is engaged in the duties of rearing its young. A Kittiwake colony is one of the most charming sights a rock -bound coast can afford. Early in spring the birds return to their old nurseries, visiting them almost daily until the work of building or restoring the nests commences. The places this Gull prefers are steep cliffs — rocks which fall sheer down to the water — on the ledges and shelves of which it places its somewhat well made nest. If the cliffs are tenanted by other sea-birds the Kitti wakes usually select the lowest part of the rocks, often making their nests a few feet from the water ; but in other situations where they have the rocks to themselves they utilise every suitable situation the largest colony of birds which I have ever seen is that at Svoerholt, not far from the North Cape in Norway, on the cliffs which form the promontory between the Porsanger and the Laxe Fjords. It is a stupendous range of cliffs, nearly a thousand feet high, and so crowded with nests that it might easily be supposed that all the Kittiwakes in the world had assembled there to breed. The number of birds has, however, been greatly exaggerated supposing the non- breeding birds to be ten to one, surely a very high estimate, we only reach five and a half million birds .... it is the custom to fire off a canon opposite the colony ; peal after peal echoes and re-echoes from the cliffs, every ledge appears to pour forth an endless stream of birds, and long before the last echo has died away it is overpowered by the cries of the birds, whilst the air in every direction exactly resembles a snow-storm, but a snow-storm in a whirl-wind. The birds fly in cohorts ; those nearest the ship are all flying in one direction, beyond them other cohorts are flying in a different direction, and so on, until the extreme distance is a confused mass of snowflakes. It looks as if the fjord was a huge chaldron of air, in which the birds were floating, and as if the floating mass was stirred by an invisible rod.” In the words of Faber: — “They hide the sun when they fly, they cover the skerries when they sit, they drown the thunder of the surf when they cry, they colour the rocks white where they breed.” When fledged the young have the front of the head, the throat, chest and entire under surface white ; the hind head and the nape of the neck greyish-black, forming a demi-collar ; a spot in front of the eye and a patch behind the ears of the same colour, the demi-collar, followed by a band of white, distinctly washed with lavender grey and by “a broad black band with irregular edges, across the secondaries, and for some distance on each side of the neck ” (Saunders) ; back and wings deep lavender grey tipped with brownish black ; the outer edge of the wing, and wing coverts mottled with black — forming a dark alar bar ; the inner secondaries showing a long patch of black on the outer VoL. VI R British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs jo6 webs, the primaries and quills black, “ the seventh often plain but sometimes with a minute black spot on the outer web ” (Saunders) ; tail white with a broad brownish-black terminal band, narrower on the outermost feathers ; bill, legs and feet dark-brown. When'in this plumage the young Kitti wakes are called Tarrocks. There is a partial moult during the first autumn of the bird’s life — the body feathers changing ; but not the wing or tail quills — during which the dark feathers in the hind neck become paler. At the various subsequent autumn moults the back and wings gradually lose the blackish-brown and become dark lavender- grey ; and the neck collar becomes less and less and finally fades out. The adult birds after their incubating labours are over, change their summer attire for their first winter plumage, which differs from that they have just put off in showing spots of dark grey in front of and behind the eyes ; “on the head and neck some slate colour, which is pale on the crown, deepens on the nape, where it almost forms a band, becomes blackish at the auriculars, and passes into white on the shoulders” (Saunders). As soon as the young are able to fly the parents quit the nurseries, and move along the coasts, recruiting after their labours and undergoing their autumnal moult before proceeding to their southern retreats— that is such of them as are going to migrate. In many parts of our coasts Kittiwakes are to be seen dnring winter ; it is of course difiicult to determine whether these birds belong to the colonies that have bred in England, or whether they have come from further north and are making our more temperate regions their winter retreat. It is a true marine bird, and keeps very rigidly to the shore and coast, rarely straying inland ; still it has been observed, by the Rev. H. A. Macpherson, in his “ Lakeland,” that in the spring of the year a few Kittiwakes often assemble in the fields, a few miles from salt water, to feed on the worms and grubs exposed by the plough. The Kittiwake is a poor walker on account of the shortness of its legs ; it rests “ either standing or lying like the other birds of this group ; associates occasionally with Gulls and Terns ; is of a gentle disposition, sociable and altogether amiable .... It flies with a rapid and constant beat of its curved Avings ; glides and wheels and hovers over the smooth sea, or skims lightly over the high waves, descending into the furrows, and rising buoyantly to surmount the advancing wave” (Macgillivray). The Kittiwake feeds on Crustacea, shell-fish, any surface floating marine life, which, dropping down upon with elevated vibrating wings, they pick up most deftly. Dr. Malmgren, according to Professor Newton, found the stomachs of Kittiwakes, opened by him, filled with Limacina arctica and Clio borealis. The Kittiwake Gull. 107 “ While fishing and shooting in the channel off Shoreham, Lancing and Worthing, during autumn, I remarked that the young Kittiwakes generally put in an appearance soon after the beginning of September .... I noticed they were capable of devouring immense quantities of herrings and any amount of sprats and fish-liver when cut up into small pieces ; [which] we used to feed the swarms of these birds [with]. . . . the Kittiwakes would hover in hundreds just over the stem, darting down when small pieces of fish were flung overboard, and seizing the morsel before it reached the water.” (Booth). Harvie-Brown and Buckley mention in their “ Fauna of Argyll and the Inner Hebrides ” a curious habit observed by Mr. H. Evans from his yacht. Kittiwakes were seen close by his vessel under water in pursuit of fish. “Two Kittiwakes,” he notes, “seen resting on the water, and things like open books under water, the next moment up popped six more Kittiwakes ; we steamed into the middle of them, and there were eight instead of two. They were open winged under water, and rose apparently quite dry. They projected themselves into the water rather like Terns, but from a lesser height.” This bird is, on account of its beautiful wings, one of the few British species destroyed in large numbers for the purpose of supplying “ plumes ” for ladies’ wear. Thousands are yearly shot for this purpose at Lundy, “ in many cases the wings tom off the wounded birds before they were dead ” (Saunders), just as is so often done in the breeding haunts of the White Egret; off Brighton, is another slaughtering place, with the same object in view. The confiding nature of the bird leads it to its destruction ; for Kittiwakes like Terns congregate fearlessly and within shot, round one of their fallen neighbours. io8 British Birds with their Nests and Eggs. Family — LARID/F. S ub/ani ily — L A RINAi . Ivory Gull. Pagophila eburnea, PhippS. IS beautiful Gull, a true native of the Arctic regions, is a frequent visitor to this country. As might be expected, it is most frequently to be seen in the more northern regions of our islands. It has, since its first notice in 1822, been recorded on more than thirty occasions, both adults and young, and from all parts, down both coasts of England and Scotland, to Sussex on the east and bird is rarely seen so far from its haunts as our shores, except in winter, and especially in severe seasons. The Ivory Gull is at home all round the polar regions, and nests in a latitude higher than almost any other bird. Its eggs have been found in 80° N. Josef Land, in large numbers. In winter, it migrates “ as far as the coast of France and Lake Leman (once); and New Brunswick in America” (Saunders). In the North Pacific it is rare, though found on the Asiatic side of Bering Straits. In summer plumage, the Ivory Gull, often called the Ivory Whale-Gull and the “ Snow-bird,” is entirely ivory white ; the bill is greenish grey to the front of the nostrils, then tipped with rich yellow, flushed with red ; a ring round the eye vermilion, or brick- red ; legs and feet black. Length 19 inches; wing 14; tail 6 ; tarsus ; middle toe and its claw if. The female is similar to the male, but slightly smaller and with, if anything, a smaller tarsus. As to the nidification of this species Professor Collett has given an interesting account, in “The Ibis” for 1888, p. 440, from material and notes brought him by Captain Johannesen, from Stor-oen island, off the east of Cape Smith, Spitzbergen, in 80° 9' N. latitude. On the 8th of August when he [Captain Johannesen] visited the island, he found young birds in all stages, from newly hatched to fully fledged, together with a small number of eggs, which, however, were on the point of hatching, and in all probability not one would have been left a week Cornwall on the west. In Ireland it has not been observed so frequently. The latitude, and Nansen saw the birds in from 82° 21' north southward as far as Franz Ivory Gull Immature The Ivory Gull. 109 later eburyietcs was breeding on the N.B. side of the island, close to or only a short way above, high-water mark, on low-lying ground like L. camis, L. /uscus, &c., and not in the cliffs. Captain Johannesen estimated the number of nests at from 100 to 150; they were somewhat apart, at distances varying from two to four yards .... there were one or two eggs or young, but never more in a nest .... several black-spotted young, capable of flight were seen, likewise several young birds of the previous year’s brood remained on the breeding ground. “ The nest is composed chiefly of green moss, which forms about nine- tenths of its mass ; the rest consists of small splinters of soft wood, a few feathers, single stalks and leaves of algse, with one or two particles of lichen .... under the microscope they [the splinters of soft wood] are proved to be of conifers, probably Larch, drifted from the Siberian rivers .... The average of nine eggs was 59.9 millim. in length by 33.7 millim. in breadth [2! inches long by il in breadth]. The ground-colour of five specimens is almost entirely alike, viz., a light greyish-brown tint with faint admixture of yellowish green, such as often appears on the eggs of L. canus, which, however, have often a deeper brown or green hue. In structure and gloss all nine eggs greatly resemble those of L. canus .... The eggs are easily distinguished from those of Rissa tridactyla by their greater gloss, and the small excrescences do not lie so crowded, and are a little more flattened than they usually are in the last mentioned species. “ Newly hatched young in down . . . [are] white all over ; the down white to the root. Even in this first stage, the young in down may be distinguished from the young of other species by the strong and hooked claws, especially on the hind toe, the somewhat marginated web on the toes, and the forward nostrils . ... In a somewhat older bird .... the tips of the feathers appear on the shoulders, which exhibit a broad dark-brown transverse band within the white and still down-bearing tips.” Fully fledged birds are more or less lavender-grey all over; birds still older but immature, have the throat and face grey, with black spots on the back and scapulars and on the secondaries. As they advance in age, the young Ivory Gulls have greyish black spots on the wing coverts ; and a black spot at the tips of the primaries ; while the tail has a black sub-terminal bar. The spots get fewer with the bird’s age. In winter the plumage is the same as in summer. The Ivory Gull is a very fearless species as compared with other Gulls. Its note is spoken of by Captain Fielden as “ shrill ” and similar to the Arctic Tern’s. Nansen calls it “ an angry cry.” “ They are very bold,” he says, “ and last vS VOL. VI no British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs night stole a piece of blubber lying close by the tent wall.” Dr. Nansen else- where in his “Farthest North” tells how these birds behaved over the “remains” of a bear he had shot. “ On the shore below the tent,” he says, “ the Ivory Gulls were making a fearful hubub. They had gathered in scores from all quarters and could not agree as to the fair division of the bear’s entrails ; they fought incessantly, filling the air with their angry cries. It is one of nature’s unaccountable freaks to have made this bird so pretty while giving it such an ugl}^ voice.” This is quite in accordance with what has been recorded by Captain Fielden. “ The Gulls gathered in large flocks from all quarters, both Ivory and Glaucous Gulls, and kept up a perpetual screaming and noise both night and day. When they had eaten as much as they could manage, they generally sat out on the ice-hummocks and chattered together. When we came down to skin, they withdrew only a very little way from the carcases [of the walruses], and sat waiting patiently in long rows on the ice beside us, or, led on by a few bold officers, drew continually nearer. No sooner did a little scrap of blubber fall than two or three Ivory Gulls would pounce upon it, often at our very feet, and fight over it until the feathers flew.” The Ivory Gull feeds, in the Arctic regions, on Crustacea and Clio borealis. “They never lie down,” notes the Rev. A. E. Eaton, “like the Arctic Terns, but either walk or stand still ; some of them walking far into the interior of the carcases of the white whales, and emerging with their heads covered with blood.” Professor Malmgren writes that in Spitzbergen the Ivory Gull “ is seldom seem elsewhere than near the ice. It does not settle on the water like other Gulls, but it is invariably seen on the edge of the ice; and it takes its prey with its beak from the water when on the wing. This species and the Fulmar appear in numbers when a seal or walrus is being cut up, and are so little shy that if one throws out pieces of fat they will approach quite close. At these places, where the seals, &c., are cut up, the Fulmars swim round, whereas the Ivory Gulls are on the wing, or sitting on the ice. Martens remarks also that he did not see them swimming on the water. This Gull feeds on carcases left by the walrus-hunters or the remnants left over after the Polar bears have eaten ; but its chief food consists of the excrements of the seal and walrus. I often observed on my excursions in places where the Ivory Gulls were numerous (as, for instance, in Murchison’s Bay, in 8o° N. lat.), that they will sit for hours at the holes in the stationary ice, through which the seals come up to lie on the ice, waiting for the seals appearance. They look as if sitting in council round a table ; and this practice has doubtless given rise to the curious name used by Martens in 1675 for this Gull, viz., ‘ Rathsherr ’ (councillor), a name analogous The Ivory Gull. Ill in its derivation to that of ‘ Burgermeister ’ (mayor), used for the Glaucous Gull. Round these holes in the ice the resting places of the seals are coloured brown with their excrements, which are chiefly devoured by birds, only so much being left as will colour the snow. Martens says that he has seen the Ivory Gull feeding on the excrements of the Walrus.” “ The Ivory Gull,” so Professor Newton has recorded in the “ Ibis, ” 1865, p. 507, “ is of all others the bird of which any visitor to Spitzbergen will carry away the keenest recollection. One can only wish that a creature so fair to look upon was not so foul a feeder .... I have .... to add that contrary to the experience of almost all other observers, I once saw an Ivory Gull of its own accord deliberately settle on the water and swim. This was in the Stor Fjord. There is a very great variation in the size of different specimens of this bird, which is not at all to be attributed to sex, or, I think, to age ; but I do not for a moment countenance the belief in a second species .... I here transcribe what Professor Malmgren, the fortunate finder of [the first well authenticated specimens of the eggs of this bird brought to Europe] says about them : — “ On the 7th July, 1861, I found on the north shore of Murchison Bay, lat. 80° N., a number of Ivory Gulls established on the side of a steep limestone precipice, some hundred feet high, in company with Larus tridactyhcs and L. glaucus. The last named occupied the higher zones of the precipice. Larus eburneus, on the other hand, occupied the niche and clefts lower down, at a height of from fifty to a hundred feet. I could plainly see that the hen-birds were sitting on their nests ; but these to me were altogether inaccessible. Circumstances did not permit me before the 30th July to make an attempt, with the help of a long rope, and some necessary assistance, to get at the eggs. On the day just named I succeeded, with the assistance of three men, in reaching two of the lowest in situation, which each contained one egg. The nest was artless and without connexion, and consisted of a shallow depression, 8 or 9 inches broad, in loose clay and mould on a sublayer of limestone. Inside, it was carelessly lined with dry plants, grass, moss and the like, and also a few feathers. The eggs were much incubated, and already contained down-clad young .... “ The locality just mentioned .... lies at the northern entrance of Hinlopen Strait .... I am, however, inclined to think the Ivory Gull breeds periodical!}^ in many other parts of Spitzbergen proper .... This species, like other Gulls, probably does not always breed in colonies ; and as it is sure to select the most inaccessible places for the purpose, an occasional nest here and there might well escape notice.” According to Mr. Trevor-Battye the presence of ice has an attraction for the II2 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. Ivory Gull. If the ice depart ; so do the birds — on its return the birds come HE Great Skua, Skua-Gull, or Bonxie, as it is variously named, though truly a British breeding bird, is not a familiar one in the southern parts of the kingdom, except in very rough weather. It nests now only in the islands of Unst and Foula, in the Shetlands— where it is protected. During winter and autumn, a few individuals straggle southward, along the coasts of both England and Scotland. In Ireland it has been taken on a few occasions ; but it has never bred there. Mr. Eagle Clarke’s account of the ruthless destruction of the bird, and the wholesale stealing of its eggs, shows that, unless some measures of protection are at once afforded to the Great Skua, this splendid member of our avifauna must soon be exterminated from Europe. Its nests have been found in Iceland and the Fseroe Islands ; but none have yet been taken in North America, nor in Greenland, which it visits, though in the former, not improbably, breeding stations may yet be found. In winter it wanders to North Africa, on the eastern side of the Atlantic,, and on the western, as far as the shores of Massachusetts. Its large size — it is as big as a Herring Gull — and dark colour, render it too conspicuous not to be distinguished at once from any other shore bird. The female is in colour of plumage exactly similar to the male, but she varies also back. “ I expect,” he says, “ the explanation will be found in the fact that this truly Arctic species is greatly dependent upon seals’ ‘ leavings ’ of different sorts.” Fam ily—S TER CORAR/ID^. Great Skua. Megalestris catarrhactes, EiNN. Great Skua The Great Skua. 113 slightly in size, and may be larger than, or equal to, her mate. The feathers of the neck are stiff and acuminate. The general colour of the bird’s entire plumage is deep umber-brown ; the elongated neck feathers are streaked, those on the top of the head tipped, with brownish-yellow ; the lower neck brownish-yellow ; on the scapulars there is a pale area ; wings dark brown ; wing-coverts lighter ; primary coverts and quills brownish-black, with their shafts white except towards the end ; a large portion of the bases of the primaries of the same colour (which does not extend to the outer web of the outer quill) forming a conspicuous alar patch, seen on the under side when the bird is on the wing, as well as when it is at rest ; inner secondaries brown, outer lighter ; tail coverts brown, with a reddish stripe ; the tail feathers blackish-brown ; whole of the under surface reddish-brown, with redder shaft-stripes on the throat and upper breast ; under wing-coverts dark brown, washed with reddish-brown ; bill black ; cere greyish-blue ; legs and feet black. Length 23 inches; wing 151 to i6i; tail, whose middle feathers are longer than the rest, 64 to 7 ; middle toe, with its claw, 3 ; tarsus 2f. The nest of the Great Skua is generally a hollow trodden in a heather bush, or a bank of moss ; in which, as a rule, two eggs and sometimes three are laid. The nests are not, however, made in such large colonies as is the case with most of the Gulls — a few pairs only breeding in proximity to each other. They are generally to be observed in pairs together, each at a little distance from the next. Mr. Richard Barrington has given, in the “ Zoologist,” an interesting account of his visit to this bird’s breeding place in Foula. “ We landed,” he says, “ on Foula at midnight, on June 22nd last [1890], from the mainland of Shetland, from which Foula is distant about eighteen miles. To the west of the island the cliffs are bold and striking, and form a jagged outline, which, for imposing grandness, is hardly to be surpassed. On the east and north-east the island is comparatively low, with cliffs varying from fifty to hundred and fifty feet, but there is no strand or stony beach anywhere, save where a mountain stream enters the ocean at a little creek in the rocks, and this strip of beach is only ten yards across “ Foula is about three miles long and two broad, and its highest point is the Sneug, 1372 feet. The highest cliff is the Kame, 1220 feet “The island is not only bleak and exposed, but subject to sudden squalls of exceptional violence from the steep face of the storm-swept Sneug, the home of the Great Skua, towards which we went With one or two exceptions the Great Skuas all breed on the southern face. The nest is merely a depression on the surface. They seem to scratch a little at first, then smooth the place with their breasts. In one or two cases some withered leaves of Eriophorum were round the edge, apparently broken off because they were in the way. Having heard and British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 114 read so much about the boldness of the Great Skua in attacking intruders during the breeding season, there was at first some disappointment at their apparent want of courage. There were no eggs or young in any of the four or five nests ; this might account for it. Away down the slope, about half a mile away, Richardson’s Skuas were seen, and a nest found with two eggs. “Walking on towards the depression between the Hamnafeld and the Sneug, Great Skuas appeared more numerously, about ten pairs being observed within a radius of two hundred yards. Many nests were met with, but not a single egg. Up to this the birds had not come nearer than ten to twenty yards, flying past and across us, now and then uttering a croaking noise, “ ag-ag” and sometimes alighting within thirty yards. Presently a pair became very bold, and when passing would swoop towards us. Thinking eggs or young must be close by, a delay was made to search carefully, and both Skuas then attacked us vigorously, so that our sticks were involuntarily raised to prevent them striking our heads. The modus operandi was this : — The Skua would start about sixty yards off, on the same level as our heads, and fly straight at us, not deviating an inch, and increasing in speed, then, when within a yard or two of our heads, the feet were lowered, claws extended, and with a terrific ‘ swish ’ and deep rushing noise of the wings, it would swerve upwards in a graceful curve, wheel then either to the left or right, descend again to the level of our heads, and repeat the performance with greater or less vigour, according as we approached or receded from the nest. The nests were sometimes within ten yards of each other, but more frequently thirty to forty yards asunder. I must have seen over sixty, but all had been robbed save one, and this one contained a single egg. It was the only nest seen at a lower level than eight hundred feet, and probably escaped the searching eyes of the native egg merchant. W. was more fortunate, and found in one spot a few nests with one to two eggs and one young bird. The general impression left was that the Great Skitas were flying round their robbed nests, intending either to make new ones close by, or lay a second time in the old nests. Three times only was I attacked in that extraordinary vigorous manner which has made the Great Skua so noted for its boldness ; but, were the nests not robbed, and three or four pairs of Skuas defending their young at the same time, few visitors would have the courage to face them without a stick. The natives told me that in some instances the Skuas knocked off their hats, and have broken their wings against a stick suddenly held up as they swooped at the head of the intruder. No serious injury seems at any time to have been inflicted on a human being by a Skua. The birds probably weigh four or five pounds, and this weight striking a man on the head, and coming at such a velocity, would certainly kill him. “ In every case in which a pair of Great Skuas were seen together, as if nesting, one bird was dark and the other light coloured, and the inference was that the colours might be sexual A dark bird was shot, and next day a light one was procured in another part of the island, also at a distance from the breeding grounds. The dark bird turned out to be a male and the light one a female whether the colouring is associated with age or sex, or is merely a phase which both sexes may present, as in Richardson’s Skua, I cannot say. The fact that the dark bird is smaller may have been accidental, for the difference in size was not detected when the birds were sitting or flying past ; but if not accidental, and constant, the stouter and older looking bill and claws in the light Skua is in favour of the age theory When the Skuas were sitting on the ground, side by side, the difference in colouration was in every instance noticed.” The eggs are laid in Ma}^ and June. These are of an olive-brown ground- colour, with blotches of reddish-brown, or a darker brown, than the ground-colour, often entirely covering the larger end of the egg. They vary in length from 2h to 2I inches in length by li to 2 inches in breadth. The young emerge as down-clad chicks of brownish- grey, somewhat more rufous on the upper side. On becoming fully fledged the young birds assume at once the plumage of their parents, except for the shorter and less prominently pointed feathers of the neck, and the more rufous margins of the back feathers. Mr. Saunders says that “ beyond a certain freshness on the new feathers, there is no marked seasonal change, and the moult appears to be very gradual, the plumage of the neck and shoulders having generally a weather-worn appearance, as is also the case with many Raptores. Mr. G. T. Fox, who kept a bird alive for ten years, says it showed no change with age .... Melanotic varieties are occasionally met with, but the blackish tint is by no means intense.” What the dark and light coloured birds are, has not yet been settled satisfactorily, z.e., whether the difference in hue is due to age or sex, or simple variation, as the above quoted observations of Mr. Barrington show. The Great Skua has many of the habits of the Raptorial birds, though it does not seize and carr}^ off its prey in its talons. It is a rapacious feeder, seizing and swallowing any bird it comes across, even as large as the Kittiwake. It causes other Gulls to disgorge the results of their fishing forays, and sometimes fishes on its own account. Dr. Bdmondston gives it the character of being in captivity gentle and affectionate, and feeding on anything offered to it ; but iu defence of its eggs and young it is fearless and bold, and will attack either Raven or Eagle. In the Faeroes it was, half a centur}^ ago at least, a proscribed bird, and, according ii6 British Birds with their Nests and Eggs. to Mr. Wolley, a certain number of heads were required to be sent in by every inhabitant annually. “ I do not know,” he says, “ if this is now strictly enforced ; but I have seen the people collect heads, when they had the opportunity, either of this bird, or the Raven, or the Great Blaek-backed Gull — that is when they were ready killed for them.” A less preeise injunction has been so efl&cacious in our islands as to reduce the numbers of these birds almost to the vanishing point. But for the magnanimous protection given to them on the Shetlands, they would by this time have long ago ceased to exist as a British Bird. Family— S TERCORARIID^. POMATORHINE SkUA. Stercorarius pomatorhinus, Temm. This very fine bird is often named the Twist-tailed Skua, from the two much elongated central feathers of the tail being twisted on their shafts, so that the terminal part of the web stands vertical, and looks as if it had a “ bob ” to it. This peculiarity, however, is an excellent mark for identifying the bird by when on the wing. The Pomatorhine Skua is a very rare breeder in our islands, if indeed it has ever really done so. In their “ Fauna of the Outer Hebrides,” Harvie- Brown and Buckley note that : — “ Though believed to breed, or to have bred, in the Outer Hebrides, there has been no corroborative evidence since Gray wrote ; but there cannot be any doubt as to its frequent, if not regular, summer visits to the coasts of these islands, and the seas to the west of Lewis.” It is an autumn and winter migrant, and a few are to be seen along the entire coast lines of England and Scotland almost every year. Occasionally large flocks occur, the coasts of Yorkshire being apparently a favourite rendezvous; and sometimes a few / Immature ? POMATORHINE Skua 9* The Pomatorhine Skua. 117 individuals spend the whole winter in the more southern parts of Britain. In Ireland fewer specimens have been obtained. The bird is an Arctic species, and breeds round all the bare sub-polar lands north of 70°, making its appearance in its nesting haunts in the month of May from its southern retreats. The limit of its northern breeding range is unknown. In winter it migrates southward, across the equator even as far as Australia ; down the coasts of Africa ; and along the American shores, where, on its western side, it reaches as far as “ Callao Bay, in Peru” (Saunders). This species is smaller than the Great Skua ; both sexes are alike, and in breeding plumage they have the top and sides of the head brownish-black ; the long pointed feathers of the neck yellowish-white ; on the lower neck the feathers are blackish-brown, tipped with grey ; lower down they are white crossed by two bars of brownish- grey ; back, wings, and tail brownish-black ; primaries and tail feathers umber-brown, with white on the inner web near the base ; shafts whitish ; throat yellowish-white ; under side white ; the breast with a band of brownish-black bars ; the sides, the abdomen and under tail-coverts barred with the same, the dark colour predominating over the white ; under wing-coverts and axillaries uniform brownish-grey ; bill bluish-grey, tinged with green, its tip corneous ; legs and feet reddish-black. Length 20I-21 inches; wing iq-iqr; tail 5-5A, and with the long feathers it may reach 9 ; tarsus 2 ; middle toe, with its claw, 2. The Pomatorhine Skua breeds in Greenland and, among other places, on the barren tundras of the River Taimyr, where Middendorff found its eggs, in July, lying on the moor without any nest. The eggs are similar to, but smaller and lighter than, those of the Great Skua. They vary from 2i-2i inches in length, by 1 5- if; they are “indistinguishable from certain varieties of the eggs of Richardson’s Skua and the Common Gull” (Saunders). The young are covered with pale rusty-brown down. When fully fledged the head and back of the neck are reddish- or greyish-brown, margined with pale brown ; back dark brown, each feather margined with brownish-red ; tail-coverts barred with black and reddish-buff ; wing and tail quills brownish-black, with their bases and inner webs and shafts white ; under surface “ varying from numerous bold striations of brown and rufous, to an ashy-brown with faint striations, and again to an almost uniform dull brown ” (Saunders) ; tarsi, with hexagonal scales all round, and blotched with blue and grey ; bill bluish-grey, tip black ; toes blackish. According to Mr. Saunders, the more advanced but immature bird has the neck yellowish, and the under parts, the flanks, upper and under tail-coverts barred with black and white, and the under wing similarly mottled ; the central tail feathers seldom project more than two inches, and they are not twisted at the T VoL. VI iiS British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. ends. “ Melanotic individuals,” the same author adds, “ — considered to be adults from the fact that they show more or less yellow on the neck — sometimes occur, but I do not think that any of these are really mature birds.” As the birds become older the yellow on the neck increases and the barring on the flanks and tail coverts, and the neck band, decrease. The adult winter plumage of this species is the same as the summer ; but until the birds are quite mature, striated feathers may appear on the flanks and tail coverts. The Pomatorhine Skua “ seems to feed chiefly, if not entirely, at the expense of the smaller Gulls, which it causes to disgorge their newly obtained food, to be caught in its descent. Its flight is extremely rapid, ordinarily performed by rather quiet flaps of its long wings, but, in pursuit, by various movements in the manner of a Hawk. It has not been seen to prey upon birds of any kind, nor even to strike with its wings, or otherwise, those which it chases for the contents of their gullet” (Macgillivray) . Richardson saw it, in Hudson Bay, feeding on putrid flsh, and other animal substances ; and Von Heuglin asserts that in Novaya Zemlya it feeds on lemmings, and watches for them, and when they emerge drops upon them like a Hawk. “ Immense numbers,” according to Mr. Booth, “ of both old and young pass over the North Sea while on their return journey from their summer haunts. The first comers may usually be noticed off the south-east coast of Scotland about the middle of August. The earliest arrivals are for the most part, if not entirely, composed of birds exhibiting a state of plumage which I should judge (from the change of those kept in confinement) to be that preceding the assumption of the perfect adult dress.” The same author notes that in 1879, during a very stormy October, hundreds and thousands of Skuas were blown on our northern and eastern coasts. On the 30th of the month, during heavy squalls of rain and mist, a Skua here and there “ would be seen occasionally settling on the sand-banks, evidently desirous of obtaining rest, though the repeated attacks of the swarms of Grey Crows, collected on the beach, forced these weary travellers to take wing almost as soon as they alighted. A perfectly black bird, with long tail feathers, attracted my attention on several occasions when driven up from the water’s edge. Each time the Crows approached, with harsh screams and croaks, the stranger rose on wing and made his way slowly to windward, returning again after a short interval drifting in circles before the squalls .... By the end of the first week in November, the greater part of the adults had passed south ; immense numbers must, however, have perished from the effects of the continued gales.” Mr. Booth believes that Pomatorhine Skuas are five years of age before they attain their perfect plumage. He kept a number of specimens of this species in Richardson’S Skua H Richardson'S Skua. 119 confinement. The distinction between the dark and light forms, he avers, is apparent in the earliest stages. Though birds showing white breasts when adult are by far the most numerous, it is easy to trace the two forms in every stage of plumage through which they pass. The order of the autumnal migration of the Pomatorhine Skua appears, from Mr. Booth’s observations, to be ; first, birds in intermediate plumage, followed by the adults in winter garb, and last of all, the young birds. Mr. Pearson remarks that he thinks, from observations made in Novaya Zemlya, that some birds, especially the Skuas, “ do not breed in bad seasons. If this idea should prove a fact, it may be a provision of nature to prevent the Skuas becoming too numerous. They are well able to defend their eggs and young from the birds of prey found in the same countries, and equally capable of taking care of themselves ; so the only foes they need fear are old age and deficiency of food.” Family— S TERCORARIIDAl. Richardson’s Skua. Stercorarius crepidatus, GmEL. RICHARDSON’S Skua, or, as it is often called. The Arctic Skua, is a breeder within our area, and is much commoner than the Great Skua. It does not nest, however, south of the island of Jura, although it occurs along all the coasts of both Great Britain and Ireland during autumn and winter. It was in Jura that it was first found nesting in our islands, by Pennant, in the year 1772. Richardson’s Skua breeds in the Orkney and Shetland Isles. Of the Orkney Islands — where it is known as Scouti-allen — Hoy is now the only member in which it builds, and even there “ it is limited to the parish of North Walls. 120 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. Here the}^ are abundant, several pairs being generally found in pretty close proximity, and verj’ often establishing themselves amongst a colony of Gulls, with whom they live peaceably enough at their breeding stations ” (Buckley and Harvie- Brown). In Shetland the islands of Noss and Mousa are the Skua’s chief rendezvous. The Shetlanders call the bird Shooi, In Caithness it used to breed abundantly on the wide moors and marshy tracts of the interior of the county ; but the bird has been, within recent times, almost exterminated by game-keepers. One pair breeds in the same spot every year. The Hebrides is also among this bird’s nurseries — ^where it goes by the name of Fasgadair. It breeds on Stuala Island, Uist ; in Tyree ; in the Inner Hebrides there are “ certainly two large scattered colonies of Richardson’s Skuas nesting, one of which may consist of over one hundred pairs scattered over a large area” (Harvie-Brown and Buckley). As already mentioned it breeds, as it has done for over a century, in Jura — which is the southern limit of its range. It breeds in all the arctic and sub-arctic regions of both the eastern and the western hemispheres. In winter it ranges south along the coasts of Africa down to the Cape, and from Eastern Asia down to Australasia, and along the Atlantic coasts of America south to Rio de Janeiro. Like the Pomatorhine Skua, the present species has two phases of plumage, one entirely umber-brown, and the other brown on the upper side and white on the breast, with brown bars on the sides and chest, and this in both sexes more or less persistently throughout life. The males and females of both phases resemble each other. The pale- breasted adult, in breeding plumage, has “ the feathers at the base of the bill dull white ; forehead and lores ash-brown ; crown and occiput darker brown ; hind neck dull white, shading into ash-brown on the shoulders, and thickly streaked with golden straw-colour ; mantle, wings, tail-coverts and tail-quills darker brown ; the secondaries blackish ; the shafts of the principal primaries white, under tail- coverts, abdomen and under wing ash-brown ; breast and chin dull white ; throat and sides of the neck whitish, streaked with straw-yellow ; bill brownish horn colour, darker in front of the cere; tarsi and toes black” (Saunders). The dark coloured adult is similar to the light breasted form, but is “washed with sooty throughout, the under parts being nearly as dark as the mantle, which is of a deeper tone than in the pale breasted form ; the acuminate feathers of the neck yellow, but not so strongly contrasted; bill rather blacker” (Saunders). Length 2ii inches; wing 13^; tail 5?, and to the end of the elongated feathers 9 — the elongation of the central feathers of the tail is one of the characters which separate Stercorarius from Megalestris ; tarsus il ; middle toe, with its claw, il — Richardson'S Skua. I2I the invariable greater length of the toe and claw than the tarsus is a characteristic of Stercorarius. Richardson’s Skua builds in groups, scarcely to be called colonies, with their nests set a considerable distance from each other : on heaths far from the sea ; in a hollow amongst hills ; in low, wet, mossy heaths, in exposed situations ; in Caithness, “ a low and remote piece of moorland, studded by numbers of small lakes, containing mossy mounds and islands of varied size and shape” (Osborne). The nests are shallow hollows in the ground, the heather, or the mossy mounds they affect, about seven or eight inches in diameter, lined with dead leaves, sedges and grass. The female lays two eggs, of a ground colour which varies from shades of green to shades of brown, spotted, blotched or streaked with reddish- or blackish-brown or purplish-grey ; sometimes sparsely distributed all over, or congregated toward the larger end. They vaiy^ in length from 2i to ai inches, by li to if in breadth. They closely resemble specimens of the eggs of the Pomatorhine Skua, and of the Common and other Gulls. It is easy to discover the nest of the Skua by the behaviour of the parent birds. When the eggs are newly laid they do not seem to have the same solicitude for them ; but when they are hard set, or when the chicks are in the nest, they swoop down in a very menacing manner upon the intruder. The young emerge covered with long, soft, sooty-grey down above, paler beneath ; but the nestlings of the differentl}^ coloured parents vary much. The parents may be both dark ; or one dark and the other white-breasted ; of which either colour may be a male or a female. The young from the union of these differently coloured parents are, when adult, intermediate in character, “ having a dusky whitish throat, more or less of an ash-brown on the flanks” (Saunders). Mr. Dunn writes that he has taken the fully fledged young birds of a dark brown colour, the parents of which were light breasted ; and, on the contrary, light coloured young birds from dark coloured parents. Mr. Saunders describes the immature birds as streaked and mottled with various shades of brown on the upper surface, the mantle chiefly umber ; upper tail-coverts barred with dark brown, white or rufous ; the under surface more or less barred with brown on a paler ground. The offspring of two white-breasted birds is pale cinnamon-brown on the head and under parts, with dark streaks and bars ; the feathers of the upper parts umber-brown, with rufous edges. The offspring of two dark birds is much darker, with greyer tips to the feathers ; while the offspring of one white-breasted and one sooty bird is intermediate. The winter plumage of this bird is the same as that of the last species. 122 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs The habits of Richardson’s Skua are graphically described by that accurate observer, Dr. MacgilHvray . . “ there comes gliding from afar, with swift and steady motion, a dark and resolute looking bird, which, as it cleaves a path for itself among the white Terns, seems a messenger of death His victim, light and agile, attempts to evade the aggressor. It mounts, descends, sweeps aside, glides off in a curve, turns, doubles and shoots away, screaming incessantly the while. The Sea-Hawk follows the frightened bird in all its motions, which its superior agility enables it to do with apparent ease. At length the Tern, finding escape hopeless, and perhaps terrified by the imminence of its danger, disgorges part of the contents of its gullet, probably with the view of lightening itself. The pursuer, with all his seeming ferocity, has no designs upon the life of the poor Tern, and now his object is evident, for he plunges after the fallen fish, catches it in its descent, and presently flies off to attack another bird. In this way the marauder makes his rounds, exacting tribute from all whom he thinks capable of paying it, and not sturdy enough to resist oppression.” Mr. Trevor-Battye, in his “ Ice-bound on Kolguev,” says : — “ We saw a great deal of the Arctic Skua Although greatly dependent, when at sea, upon the labours of other Gulls, the breeding pairs are as persistent robbers of eggs as Rooks in a dry season, and may be constantly seen quartering the tundra for eggs or young. I should be inclined to estimate that, of breeding birds on Kolguev, there is about one pair to every seven square miles of country. We never found a colony, nor even two pairs together. All those I saw belonged to the light-coloured race. On June 29th we took eggs about half incubated. The nest was among dead water grass in a bog, and was more than a mere depression, for grasses had been walled into a lining. A nest containing one egg (July 7th) was a simple depression in dry grass ; the egg had a remarkable escape. We were driving along — four sleighs, which meant eighteen reindeer — when I called out to Hyland [Mr. Trevor- Batty e’s ‘ honest and faithful companion ’ on Kolguev], who was in front, to stop ; for some thirty yards or so away, a pair of Skuas were behaving as though they had a nest. However, we could make nothing of it, and had just taken our seats again to start off, when, as I stooped down to disengage the hind leg of one of my deer, lo ! and behold, there was the nest under my sleigh. The whole train of sleighs had passed over the nest, and yet the single egg was not broken.” Mr. Trevor-Battye describes the way these birds “ carried on ” when one was near their nest as “ past description.” “ They tried,” he says, “ to lead us away from the nest by every conceivable device. They pretended that their eggs were in two or three places other than where they really were. One very striking phase Buffon’s Skua Buffon'S Skua. 123 of the performance was the following : — A bird would drop on the water as if dead. Then it would flap helplessly for a bit, and if this did not move you, it would raise itself on its tail, beating forwards slowly with its wings and mewing like a cat. ‘ Mewing ’ exactly describes the sound. On August 7th we picked up a young Skua and brought it back alive. The bird was almost full grown, and had well developed primaries. Its parents showed no anxiety about it. It was beside a lake, and as we approached ran and hid in some grass. It bit viciously but made no noise I never, in any single instance, knew an Arctic Skua stoop at a visitor near its nest ; on the contrary an intrusion was met by every wile of allurement. It was the old game of ‘ cold or hot ’ ; until at last, when you stood close to the nest, both the birds were reduced to a state of helplessness. At such a time they behaved exactly alike. Sitting on their tails either in the water or on the grass, and beating forward with their wings, they mewed all the time like cats.” Richardson’s Skua will fiercely attack dogs, and even cattle that approach too near its breeding grounds. The adult of the present species may be distinguished from the adult Poma- torhine Skua by its smaller size and its elongate tail feathers. Family—STERCORARIID^. Buffon’s Skua. Stercorarius parasiticus, Linn. BUFFON’S Skua, the smallest of the genus, was long confounded with that last described — namely, Richardson’s — from which, however, it is distin- guishable by its size. This species does not breed in the British Isles ; but it occurs as a straggler in winter, especially during, or immediately after, stormy weather, along both the east and west coasts of Scotland and England. It has been more frequently met with between the north of Scotland and the Yorkshire coast than elsewhere on the east coast ; it has occurred more rarely on the west coast of England. Mr. Edmund Elliot, of Kingsbridge, South Devon, has kindly sent us 124 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. a note on the occurrence of a flock of this bird to the Devonshire coast, on the afternoon of October 14th, 1891, when the south-westerly gale, which had been blowing continuously for more than forty-eight hours, seemed to reach its climax. “Just as da}dight was waning, a large flock of Buffon’s Skua suddenly came in from the sea and settled on the sands, well out of reach of the incoming tide. They appeared quite exhausted, and allowed a near approach, getting up one by one, flying a short distance and settling again. Many birds were secured which were found to vary much in plumage, the majority having mottled feathers, grey, brown and white in irregular patches, the under parts especially varying in degree of white ; two or three were assuming adult plumage, and had the central tail feathers quite five inches longer than the rest. One bird was chocolate-brown all over. The webbed feet of all the specimens were marbled. During the same gale specimens of Buffon’s Skua were observed along the south coast of Devon and on the Bristol Channel, on its north coast.” In Ireland, this Skua is of occasional occurrence, in autumn, on some parts of the north and east coast. The breeding range of this species is mainly to the north of the Arctic Circle, but it nests in some of the high Scandanavian fells. In winter it migrates south- ward, along the western coasts of Europe, to the entrance to the Mediterranean, and down the eastern side of America, as also on its Pacific coast, as far as 40° N. This species very rarely exhibits the peculiar plumage phases of Richardson’s Skua. The female is similar to the male, except that she has, perhaps, the central tail feathers shorter than those of the male. In breeding plumage the front, crown, nape and sides of the head blackish- brown ; lower cheeks and neck white, washed with deep yellow ; mantle and scapulars greyish-brown ; “ primaries darker and blackish towards the extremities ; shafts of the two outer pairs of qaills white, but those of all the rest distinctly brown ” (Saunders) ; upper tail-coverts and tail brownish-black ; the elongated, tapering, central tail feathers ashy-grey at base, brownish-black elsewhere ; the abdomen, sides of body, and under surface of wing, and under tail-coverts, dark brownish-ashy ; throaty and breast white, passing into yellow at the neck ; bill corneous; legs bluish-black; toes black; webs black. Length 22 inches; wing III; tail 5L to the end of the elongated central feathers 14; tarsus li; middle toe, with its claw, i4. “The distinctly grey tint is very characteristic of this species in all stages” (Saunders). The elongate acuminate feathers of Buffon’s Skua distinguish it from the Great and the Pomatorhine Skuas. In June, this bird forms a nest simply by depressing the grass or moss, and herein deposits two eggs, which are indistinguishable by colour from those of Richardson’s Skua, and of about the same size. Mr. Pearson found, in Russian Buffon s Skua. 1-25 Lapland, one nest with two eggs, placed near the centre of a large isolated mass of peat, standing about three feet above the level of the surrounding bog, and therefore dry. The nest itself was a very slight depression, lined with a few bits of lichen. From the eggs emerge chicks covered with greyish-brown down, darker above, paler below. When fledged the young birds are sooty-brown above ; the mantle, the flanks, the upper and under tail-coverts tipped with buff ; under surface greyish- white, barred with ash-brown. Older, but immature, birds differ from adults in the under parts and upper tail-coverts being barred with varying degrees of ash- brown, and very little yellow on the sides of the head (Saunders). The winter plumage of this Skua is similar to that of the Pomatorhine Skua. Buffon’s Skua feeds on crow-berries fE-mpetrum nigriwij, crustaceans, fishes, insects, worms, but chiefly on lemmings. It will attack and also devour wounded birds, and the eggs and young of any species it comes upon. Like its cousin, last described, it keeps up the reputation of the family for piracy committed against Kittiwakes and other Gulls, which are too weak to withstand its bullying. In Greenland, Mr. Trevor- Batty e found the birds “ astonishingly bold, hanging round the camp for chance morsels. We caught one or two in muffled toothed traps. One of these settled down at once and fed readily. When I was alone in Dick- son’s Bay, two pairs nesting there were astonishingly valiant. Each time I passed their nesting ground they set at me, not stooping from a height as a Gull does, but each in turn coming straight at one’s face with a long wing-stroke, and a rapid level flight, so that it demanded some little resolution not to duck one’s head. But when about a yard from my face they always ‘ threw up ’ and passed over my head with a wind, and so close that I touched them on several occasions with my hand. Each bird kept crying incessantly until the moment came for the straight fly-in, and then it stopped and came on silently.” Captain Fielden, who was naturalist to the Arctic expedition of 1875-76, says that the present was the only species of Skua Gull that he met with in Smith Sound. “ It arrived in the neighbourhood of our winter quarters,” he records, “ during the first week of June, and in considerable numbers. After that date it was to be seen during every hour of the day quartering the fells and searching for lemmings. It lays its two eggs in a small hollow on the ground, and defends its nest with the utmost bravery. On several occasions I have struck the old birds with my gun barrel when warding off their attacks as I plundered their nests. This species can easily be distinguished from its near ally A. parasiticus, at every age, by the mottled colour of the tarsus and webs of the feet, which in parasiticus are black.” VOL. VI u British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. I 26 ORDER PYGOPODES. The Order Pygopodes was established for a group of birds consisting of the Auks fAlcidcBj, the Divers fColyvibidceJ, and the Grebes fPodicipedidceJ . In these birds the power of diving and remaining under water is largely developed, and althongh, according to some anthorities, their arrangement in one group (to the exclnsion of some other families) is not warranted by their respective strnctures, the Order thus made up is a convenient and, in many ways, a natural one. O. V. APLIN. Family Alcid/E. 127 FAMILY ALCID2F. The Auks fAlcidaJ are restricted to the northern hemisphere, and some of them have an arctic range during the breeding season. The greater number of the species are found on the shores of the Pacific ocean, and the North Pacific is the chief home of the family. All the species are migratory to some extent, more or less. All are marine in their habits. In the breeding season they are eminently gregarious ; indeed, the vast numbers of these birds which gather together at that season, at some of their nesting cliffs, afford one of the most wonderful and interesting sights which the student of field ornithology can meet with. In the Auks the feet are three-toed and completel}^ palmate or webbed. The feet of these birds are placed very far back, and the position of the birds, when standing, is nearly upright. Some of the species rest, when in this position, upon the whole foot and tarsus, and walk badly ; others rest upon the foot only, and walk more readily. The wings in all the species are small (and in one species were so small as to be useless for flight), but (with the above exception) the birds fly well and fast, with rapidly beaten wings. The tail is short. The food of the Auks consists of fish and small marine animals. In the case of most of the species a single egg is deposited, but in some two are laid. The young are hatched covered with down, and can swim at a very early age. The eggs, which are deposited on rocky ledges, in crevices of, or under rocks, and in burrows, have the grouud colour whitish or greenish, and are usually conspicuousl}^ marked with spots or streaks. The Alcidce have been divided into two subfamilies, the Puffins and the Auks (including the Guillemots). In the former the nostrils are naked, while in the latter they are more or less feathered. Nine species of Puffins have been enumerated (and one subspecies), which, with one exception, are confined to the North Pacific and Polar seas. The seasonal changes of plumage in these birds are slight, but “ all these birds have the bill appendaged with deciduous elements, which is not the case with the Alcina proper” (Cones). Twelve or fourteen species and sub- species of Auks, Guillemots and Murrelets are known, which are found in the North Pacific and the Atlantic, and in the Polar seas. The plumage of these birds undergoes considerable seasonal changes, and their bills which, although not so remarkably developed as in the Puffins, form, in some cases, a noticeable feature, do not attain their full size in the bird’s first year. As in the Puffins, the sexes are alike in phimage. 128 British Birds with their Nests and Eggs. Family — A L CIDAL. Razorbill. Alca tarda, L-inn. HE Razorbill frequents, for breeding purposes, certain rocky and precipitous parts of the coast all round the shores of Great Britain and Ireland ; it is usually associated with the Guillemot, than which it is always less abundant, and in recent years a considerable diminution in the numbers of the former species has been remarked upon. In the Orkneys, Shetlands, Hebrides, and some stations in Scotland, it is abundant, and numbers resort to the cliffs of Flamborough Head ; but on the Fames it is now one of the least common of the birds which inhabit the islands. Very few appear to breed on the Sussex cliffs at the present time. It resorts to the cliffs of the Isle of Wight, and to those of Dorset in numbers. In some spots on the North and South coasts of Devon it breeds sparingly, and it is more abundant on Lund}' Island. Further west it is found breeding in Cornwall and South-west Wales, while a few pairs are found at New Quay Head, and colonies exist on the coast of North Wales, and on the Isle of Man. In Cumberland it breeds at St. Bees. It breeds in suitable localities on the coast of eleven of the Irish counties, according to Mr. Ussher’s valuable account of the distribution of birds in Ireland during the breeding season. Its arrival at, and departure from, its breeding haunts takes place at about the same time as the Guillemot’s. During the rest of the year it may be met with in numbers in the tidewa}' of the open sea, a few miles from land, where it follows the shoals of small fish. Except at the end of summer, when the young birds are still small, and in bad weather, it seldom comes close in shore, but it frequents open bays and wanders far up the Bristol Channel. Proof of the presence of the Razorbill, at no great distance from our shores, is often forthcoming in the shape of numbers of their dead bodies washed up after heavy gales from seaward. Storm-driven birds have been found inland. The Razorbill is an inhabitant of the North Atlantic. It breeds in the Faeroes, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and some of the Baltic Islands, and on the north and Brittany coasts of France, but has not been found breeding on the coast of AD. ? Winter The Razorbill. 129 the Spanish Peninsula. In Norway it breeds on Svaerholtklubben, and possibly beyond 71° N. latitude. I saw some off the coast about the borders of Finmarken, just north of 70° N. latitude, in June 1896. Seebohm says that Henke found it breeding on the island of Onega, in the White Sea. But it does not breed on Spitsbergen or Novaya Zeinlya ; and as to the Pacific, Seebohm says the only record is doubtful. There seems to be no doubt but that it has been met with on Jan Mayen Island (“ Zoologist,” 1890, p. 45). A few pairs still breed in a deep cleft in a rock on Heligoland. On the American side it breeds in great numbers in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Labrador ; and in Greenland, Col. Feilden, who accompanied the Polar expedition on board H.M.S. Alert, found, the Razorbill breeding in considerable numbers at Ritenbenk — about lat. 70° N. (“ Zoologist,” 1878, p. 380). In winter the Razorbill is said to go down the Atlantic some distance beyond the mouth of the Mediterranean, and a good many enter that sea. With regard to the Italian coast. Professor Giglioli states that he would not be surprised, to hear that the Razorbill occasionally breeds in the Mediterranean. Two examples in summer dress were shot near Genoa on the i6th May, 1880, and there are two specimens in the Museum at Syracuse (“ Ibis,” 1881, p. 221). On the American side it goes south in winter as far as the middle States ; two specimens, probably storm-driven, have occurred on Lake Ontario. The Razorbill resorts to rocky cliffs and islets for breeding purposes, and lays its one egg in the early part or middle of May. This is usually deposited in some cleft or crevice in the rock, or under a rock ; it is, however, also deposited in some cases upon shelves or ledges on the face of a cliff. The single egg is shorter, rounder and less pointed than that of the Guillemot. They measure about 2’9 inches long by about i'85 broad, but are subject to variation. The ground colour varies from wLite to pale reddish-brown ; it is rarely white tinged with faint bluish, and never green. The markings are usually in the form of blotches and spots of various sizes, and less commonly take the form of streaks. The blotches occasionally are confluent, and form a broad zone round the larger end of the egg. The markings are dark brown, red-brown, or black, and there are under markings of a greyer tint. Both sexes are said to incubate. When Razorbills and Guillemots occupy the same breeding station, as they often do in great numbers, they are not usually found, breeding in close proximity. Their separation is probably to be accounted for by the preference shown by the respective birds for slightly different breeding sites, the present species preferring to deposit its eggs within a crevice, while the Guillemot affects an open ledge. 130 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs Thus at Flamborough, although I did not observe any signs of the two species objecting to one another’s near neighbourhood, certain parts of the cliffs, from their nature and formation, are found to be more resorted to by Razorbills than others. Young and old leave their breeding stations in August; I have seen adults in summer dress, and immature birds small enough to retain the black throat, in the first week in September, close in shore on the Norfolk coast, and have known the young obtained there when only half grown, while I was assured that quite small birds in down are sometimes procured. A careful and trustworthy observer told me that he once saw an old bird off shore accompanied by two young ones, and that the parent looked from side to side at them and took the greatest care of them both. I have not been able to discover any recorded instance of a Razorbill hatching two eggs, nor can I think this possible ; but Mr. Mcllwraith states that the eggs are “one or two” (“Birds of Ontario”). No authority is, however, given for the statement. The Razorbill when beneath the surface, uses its wings and flies through the water ; Seebohm says it is aided by its feet. It flies rapidly in a direct line, but naturally has no great command of wing. The old birds are very tame in the breeding season, and allow a boat to come within a few feet of them before diving out of the way. They have a much neater appearance on the water than Guillemots, which have a way of poking their heads forward ; Razorbills hold their heads drawn further back ; their longer tail sticks up conspicuously. They are often seen dipping their heads under water, probably picking up some food near the surface. On the cliffs they may sometimes be seen sitting with their formidable beaks partly open, and sometimes a mild fight takes place. I once saw a pair fondling one another with their beaks — at least they appeared to be doing so ; they certainly “ billed ” after a fashion, if they did not exactly coo. The Razorbill is considered to be a far from noisj- bird, but at a large breeding station it is difficult to say how much, if any, they contribute to the babel of voices which occasionally breaks out. Its usual note is a low croaking noise, but it is seldom heard. The cry of the young bird is loud and shrill ; Saxby says it is between a chirp and a whistle. The food of the Razorbill consists chiefly of the fry of fish (carried diagonally in the bill according to Mr. Saunders), procured by diving, or picked up by dipping the head below the water in times of great abundance. In winter, previous to stormy weather setting in, the birds have been observed to be ver}^ restless, and to change their quarters. And during long continned stormy and bad weather they suffer greatly from hunger. The great destruction which takes place among these birds (to a greater extent than in the case of the Guillemot) in heavy gales, is largely due, in most cases, to the birds being weakened by want of food, those washed ashore being usually very thin ; and the Razorbill, although it occasionally gets enormonsly fat, like other fish-eating birds, is probably capable of only a very short fast. Heavy gales from seaward at the close of summer, before the birds have completed their moult, are also destructive ; but probably some difficulty which the Razorbill experiences in procuring food while the sea is much agitated, largely accounts for the great mortality which occasionally takes place among the individuals of this species. The Razorbill has a great many local names ; the following have been culled from various ancient and modern anthors ; — Murre, Marrot, Falk, Oke, Willock, Parrot-billed Willock, Tinkershire, Skort. In winter dress it was the Black-billed Auk of the older authors. At Flamborough it is known as the Auk, which is, of course, a form of the modern Norsk Alke. The adult in summer has the iris brown ; bill compressed and much arched, black, the upper mandible crossed by a white line, immediately behind which is a well-defined ridge, and the anterior portion of the bill is crossed by two furrows. The lower mandible is crossed by a white line and two shallow and indistinct furrows. Chin, throat, lores, upper part of the fore neck and sides of neck very dark velvety brown ; rest of the head, neck, back, wings and tail black, with a slight greenish gloss. From the base of the culmen a narrow clearly defined white line extends to the eye ; tips of the secondaries and all the rest of the under parts white, which extends on to the fore part of the lower neck. The tail is longer than that of the Guillemot, and wedge-shaped. Legs and feet blackish. In winter the upper parts are usually duller ; the chin, throat (a small portion along the edge of the lower mandible remains dark), sides and fore part of the neck, lower face and sides of the head are white, more or less mottled on the last with dusky, the light colour extending on to the sides of the nape ; legs and toes dusky black, brownish on inside of tarsus and inner toe ; membranes dusky black ; inside of mouth pale yellowish -buff. Length about i6‘75 to i8 inches; wing y5 inches. In a young bird killed in January, the white line on the head is indistinct, the bill is much smaller (the line of the culmen only rising slightly from its base) than in the adult, aud is without the white line and grooves. By the following September the culmen has become more arched, and the bill is grooved at the base, although much less markedly so than in the adult. The clearly defined pure white line from the bill to the eye appears for the most part to pertain to the summer dress only. The bird probably does not breed until its second spring at least. 132 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. An old bird, killed in September, weighed 24-5 ounces. The young bird is covered with long brownish-black down, except on the lower breast and belly, where it is dirty white. Before it is full feathered it has the throat and neck blackish, and resembles the parents in summer to some extent ; but white feathers replace the dark ones at the end of summer, when the young bird is full grown. Family — ALCID^. Great Auk. Alca impennis, UiNN. The Great Auk, or Garefowl, which formerly inhabited certain portions of the Atlantic coasts and islands of the northern hemisphere, is now, there seems to be no reason to doubt, entirely extinct. The Great Auk has an extensive literature of its own, and the following slight sketch of its history has been compiled chiefly from the writings of Professor A. Newton, and from Mr. Symington Grieve’s monograph of the Great Auk, and the subseqnent papers which he has published, with a view to bringing together all the more recent available information relating to this extinct bird. The common idea that the Great Auk was an Arctic species is a mistaken one. As pointed out by Professor Newton, this bird did not possess a very high northern range. There are, indeed, few records of the occurrence of the Garefowl within the Arctic Circle, and these are open to doubt. The Great Auk, so far as has been ascertained, seems to have had building stations in the following localities : — St. Kilda, Orkney, possibly Shetland, the Faeroes, the three Garefowl rocks off the coast of Iceland (each known as a Geir/uglasker, or Garefowl skerry), Dan ells, or Graahs Islands (also known as Great Auk a Su.mmer Plumage I'roiii a Specimen in the British Museum, which was captured on Papa Westra Island, Orkneys, in 1S12. The Great -A UK. 133 Gimnbjornsskjoerne) on the east coast of Greenland, since closed up by the ice, consequent on a great lowering of the temperature ; some islands (notably Funk) off the coast of Newfoundland ; some of the islands in the Bay of St. Lawrence, and at Cape Briton and probably Cape Cod. It was apparently more abundant in the vicinity of Newfoundland than elsewhere. Specimens have been obtained in England, Ireland, Germany, Norway and Sweden ; while remains have occurred in parts of Scotland, England, Ireland, the United States, and Denmark. It is usually stated that the last pair of Great Auks were killed on Eldrey Island, in 1844 ; but another is said to have been killed near Vardo, in 1848 (“Bird Life in Arctic Norway”). The late Colonel H. M. Drummond-Hay used to relate that, in returning to Europe in 1852, he saw, when on the edge of the Newfoundland banks, a Great Auk within thirty or forty yards of the steamer. “ The natives in the Orkneys informed Mr. Bullock, in his late tour through those islands, that one male only had made his appearance for a long time, which had regularly visited Papa Westra for several years. The female (which the natives call the Queen of the Auks) was killed just before Mr. Bullock’s arrival. The King, or male, Mr. Bullock had the pleasure of chasing, for several hours, in a six oared boat, but without being able to kill him, for though he frequently got near him, so expert was the bird in its natural element, that it appeared impossible to shoot him. The rapidity with which he pursued his course under water, was almost incredible” (Montagu). This bird was afterwards captured by some fishermen, who killed it and sent it to Mr. Bullock. At his death it was purchased for ^15 5s. 6d. and placed in the British Museum. It is said that the fishermen enticed it to the side of the boat by holding out a few fish, and then struck it with an oar. In 1821 a bird was captured at St. Kilda by Donald M’ Queen, and others. From these men the bird was obtained by Mr. Maclellau, the tacksman of Glass or Scalpa, and the Rev. John Fleming (author of the “ History of British Animals ”) obtained it as he was leaving Glass on board the yacht of the Commissioners of the Northern Lighthouses, on the i8th August. Fleming states “this bird was emaciated, and had the appearance of being sickly, but in the course of a few days became sprightly, having been plentifully supplied with fresh fish, and permitted occasionally to sport in the water, with a cord fastened to one of its legs to prevent escape. Even in this state of restraint it performed the motions of diving and swimming under water with a rapidity that set all pursuit from a boat at defiance. A few white feathers were at that time making their appearance on the sides of its neck and throat, which increased considerably during the VOL. VI X 134 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs following week, and left no doubt that, like its congeners, the blackness of the throat- feathers of summer is exchanged for white during the winter season” (“Edinburgh Philosophical Journal”). It is rather uncertain what became of this bird. One account says that it escaped, and it is supposed that it afterwards died and that its body was cast ashore at Gonrock. A Great Auk was captured alive in Waterford Harbour, in May, 1834, by a fisherman who, by throwing sprats to it, attracted it within reach of a landing net. It was kept alive for some time, and after its death was preserved and is now to be seen in the Museum of Trinity College, Dublin. Another bird is said to have been obtained about the same time, but it was not preserved. Wallace (in a work published in 1769) mentions a Penguin, a curious and uncommon bird, taken alive at the island of Earn “ a few years ago,” which grew so tame and familiar that it would follow its owner, with its body erect, to be fed. There is a story about a man called M’ Queen and two other men capturing a Garefowl on Stack-an- Annin, off Borera, in the St. Kilda group, about 1840. Eauchlan M’Kinnon, the survivor of the three men, questioned by Mr. H. Evans, of Jura, recognized at once a picture of the bird, remarking upon the little wings, and the white spot on the side of the head. He said the bird kept its great bill open very long and often, “ as if it would never shut its bill again.” This last is a curious point, for I have remarked that the Razorbill (the Great Auk’s near relation) has a habit of sitting with its beak open. Donald M’Queen, who caught the last undoubted Scotch Great Auk in 1821, died in 1880, aged 73. A Great Auk is said to have been found dead near Lundy Island, in 1829. Eull particulars of this occurrence, and of a tradition of this bird having formerly bred on the island, are to be found in Messrs. D’Urban and Mathew’s “ Birds of Devon.” Some other occurrences of the Great Auk off our coasts have been recorded ; but it is doubtful if any of them are authentic. One is said to have been obtained on the long strand of Castle Freke, in the west of Co. Cork. Two are said to have been seen in Belfast Bay on the 23rd of September, 1845. One was seen off Fair Island, Orkney, in June, 1798, and two birds believed to have been Great Auks (although it is very unlikely that they were) were shot off Skye, in 1844. Mr. J. E. Harting has recorded (“The Field,” 1889) that there is in the Museum of the Jardin des Plantes, in Paris, a stuffed specimen and one egg, of a dirty white, marked with three or four dark blotches at the larger end, labelled “ Cotes d' EcosseC Remains of the Great Auk have been found in Caithness, on Oronsay, one of the Southern Hebrides ; at Whitburn Sands, Durham ; and in the north and The Great Auk. 135 south of Ireland. On Funk Island, off the coast of Newfoundland, vast quantities of remains of the Great Ank have been found. Bones have also been found in shell monnds on the coast of Maine and Massachusetts. The accounts of the destruction of the Garefowl, or Pengnin (by which name this bird was formerly widely known), furnish us with some idea of the former numerical strength of this species. From a letter written to Hakluyt, in 1578, it appears that the fishermen, who visited the banks of Newfoundland, depended greatly upon these birds as a source of food, or as the writer puts it, “ victuall themselves always with these birdes.” The Auks were salted down. In 1785, Cartwright, writing about the Funk Island, said that people brought the birds thence salted, and ate them in lieu of salted pork. He further stated that “ the poor inhabitants of Fogo Island make voyages there to load with birds and eggs. Where the water is smooth they make their shallop fast to the shore, lay their gang-boards from the gunwale of the boat to the rocks, and then drive as many Penguins on board as she will hold, for the wings of these birds being remarkably short they cannot fly. But it has been customary of late years for several crews of men to live all summer on that island, for the sole purpose of killing birds for the sake of their feathers ; the destruction they have made is incredible. If a stop is not soon put to that practice, the whole breed will be diminished to almost nothing, particularly the Penguin, for this is now the only island they have left to breed upon.” The most famous haunts of the Garefowl in Europe were the skerries to the south-west of Cape Reykjanes, on the mainland of Iceland. Here the birds made their last stand. On one of these skerries, known (in common with two or three other rocks) as the Geirfuglasker (now submerged), situated about twenty-flve miles from the mainland, great numbers of Garefowls were killed, in the last century, by expeditions which visited the rock to obtain eggs and birds. In 1813, the Governor of the Faeroes sent the schooner Faroe to Iceland to get food. The crew visited the Geirfuglasker and killed many birds. When they reached Reykjavik they had twent3^-fonr Garefowls on board, besides numbers that had been salted down. In 1830 this Geirfuglasker disappeared after a volcanic disturbance. Soon after this a colony of Garefowls appeared at Eldrey, a stack nearer the mainland and more accessible. Here they were harried for fourteen years, and it is believed about sixty birds were killed during that time. In 1844, the last pair were killed through the efforts of a special expedition, and these two birds are generally believed to have been the last of their race. Not much was ever written about the habits of the Garefowl. Martin, who visited St. Kilda at the end of May, 1697, wrote: — “The sea-fowl are first the British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 136 Gairfowl, being the stateliest, as well as the largest sort, and above the size of a Solan-Goose ; of a black colour, red about the eyes, a large white spot nnder each, a long broad bill. It stands stately, its whole body erected ; its wings short, flies not at all ; lays its eggs npon the bare rock, which if taken away she lays no more for that year. She is whole footed, and has the hatching spot npon her breast, i.e., a bare spot from which the feathers have fallen off with the heat in hatching ; its egg is twice as big as that of a Solan Goose, and is variously spotted black, green, and dark. It comes withont regard to any wind, appears the first of May, and goes away about the middle of June.” Pennant describes the egg as of a white colour, in some cases irregularly marked with purplish lines crossing each other, in others blotched with black and ferruginous about the thicker end. On the authority of Macaulay (“ History of St. Kilda,” 1764), he adds that the Great Auk did not visit the island annually, but sometimes kept away for several years together ; it laid its egg close to the sea-mark, being incapable, by reason of the shortness of its wings, to mount higher. The Great Auk is believed to have made no nest, and to have deposited its one large egg on the rocks. The average measurements of an egg are, length about 4 ‘9 inches, breadth about 2 '9 or 3‘oo inches. The eggs have the ground colour whitish or brownish- white, and have underlying grey markings and dark brown or blackish surface markings ; the markings are very irregular in shape, usually most numerous about the larger end of the egg, and take the form of spots as well as streaks, lines and scrolls ; some eggs are heavily marked, others only lightly. It is said that the Garefowls swam with their heads much lifted up, but their necks drawn in ; they never tried to flap along the surface, but dived as soon as alarmed. On land they assumed a very upright appearance. They walked or ran with short steps, went straight like a man, and could go almost as fast as a man could walk ; when pursued their little wings were somewhat extended as they ran. A few croaks were sometimes uttered by them. Dr. Fleming wrote of this bird, which came into his possession when he was on board the yacht Recent, in 1821. “ When fed in confinement it holds up its head, expressing its anxiety by shaking its head and neck and uttering a gurgling noise. It dives and swims under water, even with a long cord attached to its foot, with incredible swiftness.” Mr. S. Grieves’ latest summary of existing remains of the Garefowl is as follows : — skins 79 or 80 ; skeletons (more or less complete) 23 or 24 ; detached bones 850 or 861 ; physiological preparations 2 or 3 ; eggs 70 or 72. The skin of the Great Auk, now in the Edinburgh Museum, was sold just after being offered at Mr. J. C. Stevens’ Auction Rooms, in April 1895, for ;^3b7 los. ; it is said to be a very fine specimen. Taking into consideration the The Great Auk 137 very limited number of eggs of the Great Auk known to be in existence, examples have changed hands rather frequently of late years. Most of these are disposed of by auction by Mr. J. C. Stevens, in his well known Auction Rooms in King Street, Covent Garden. Prices have increased enormously in the last half century. An egg, purchased from a dealer in Paris for 200 francs, realized 180 guineas in 1895. Yarrell’s egg, which, at his death in 1856, only fetched ;^2i in Mr. Stevens’ Rooms, was sold again in 1894 for 300 guineas. This is probably the highest price paid at a sale by public auction for one of these eggs. The adult in summer dress had the head, hinder part of the neck, chin, throat, back, wings, and tail, black ; between the beak and the eye an oval patch of white ; secondaries tipped with white ; front of the lower neck, breast, belly, and underparts generally, white ; bill black, strong, arched, and compressed, and marked with several deep furrows and ridges ; tarsi and feet black ; iris dark brown. In winter the chin, throat, and front of the upper neck, became white. “ Total length about 30 inches ; beak 3 inches, 6 lines ; wing 6 inches; tail 2 inches; tarsus 2 inches, i line” (Dresser, “Birds of Europe”). Pennant gives the length of this bird “ to the end of its toes ” as three feet ; but birds are usually measured from the tip of the beak to the tip of the tail. He adds : — “ The wings of this bird are so small as to be useless for flight ; the length, from the tip of the longest quill-feather to the first joint, being only four inches and a quarter.” Fleming’s description is worth quoting in full, as this fortunate naturalist saw the bird alive. “ Length 3 feet ; bill, dorsally, 3, in front of the nostrils 22, in the gape qi, depth if inches; 7 ridges in the upper and ii in the lower mandible ; legs black ; irides chestnut ; margin of the e}^elid black. Inside of the mouth orange. >Head, back and neck black, the latter with a brownish tinge. Quills dusky ; secondaries tipped with white. Breast and belly white. In winter the brownish-black of the throat and foreneck is replaced by white, as I had an opportunity of observing in a living bird, brought from St. Kilda.” A young bird, preserved in the Natural History Museum at Newcastle-upon- Tyne, and figured by Mr. Symington Grieve in a most valuable paper, published in the “ Transactions of the Edinburgh Field Naturalists’ and Microscopical Society,” appears to have the chin, throat and neck mottled with black and white ; the upper neck and back slightly mottled ; the oval spot in front of the eye well developed and conspicuous, although slightly mottled with dusky ; the bill slighter than in the adult, nearly smooth, leaving only on the “ upper mandible two furrows, posterior end ; and under mandible, three furrows about middle.” The white spot between the bill and the eye is probably exactly analogous Y VOL. VI British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. to the white line between the eye and the base of the bill of the Razorbill. It is evident from the Newcastle specimen that it is present in the yonng, although not so clearly defined as in the adnlt in snmmer plumage. But from another figure given by Mr. Grieve, viz., that of a bird preserved at Prague, which is more or less in winter dress and, from the furrows on the beak, an older bird than that at Newcastle, but which does not exhibit any sign of the white spot in front of the eye, it appears that just as the white line is absent or almost absent from some adult Razorbills in winter dress, so the white spot in front of the Great Auk’s bill ma}^ be absent from adult birds in that season’s plumage. Fam ily — A L Cl DAL. Guillemot. Uria froile, (Linn.) The Guillemot resorts to our coasts for breeding purposes, and during the rest of the year is found at a little distance out to sea. It may be said to pass the whole of its life, with the exception of a few weeks, on the sea, usually at some distance from the shore. During the few weeks over which the breeding season extends, the Guillemot is a rock-bird, an inhabitant solely of the sea-cliffs and stack rocks. It breeds, in suitable localities, all round the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland ; but far the more numerously in the west, and still more in the north, although there are some large and noted colonies on the north-east coast ; on the southern coast of England, breeding colonies have become fewer and smaller within the last half century In the Shetland and Orkney Islands it breeds abundantly, and there are stations down the east coast of Scotland, notabl}^ a famous one on the Bass Rock, Ad. q I, therefore gave effect to their wishes by accepting the undertaking. At that time, however, I was busily engaged upon the illustrations of Dr. Butler’s work on “Foreign Finches in Captivit}^’’ then in course of publication by the same firm. It was, therefore, six months later that I finished the last plate for that book, and immediately set to work upon the first plate for British Birds, in the Spring of 1896. From that time down to the present I have been daily occupied with the work, and it is with a feeling of some satisfaction that I have now completed the long, unbroken spell of labour, which, however, has been of very considerable pleasure for me to carry through. But the amount of work entailed in such an undertaking is veiy- great, as the procuring and selection of all the specimens for figuring, amounting to many hundreds of skins, and as many eggs, has been entirely left to me. I may mention that only three drawings out of the 318 plates of Birds are taken from mounted specimens, these being the Hawk Owl, Goshawk, and Capercaillie. The Hawk Owl is from a very fine specimen kindly lent me by the Rev. Murray A. Mathew, and set-up so admirably that the Fate Ford Filford considered it absolutely true to life. The Goshawk, from a specimen set-up by Mr. F. Doggett, accurately representing the manner in which this bird takes its quarry, while the Capercaillie is a modified copy of a fine, mounted specimen in the British Museum. All the plates excepting these three are from skins, combined, in the majority of cases, with sketches from life. I will now take the opportunity of expressing my sincere thanks to all those who have so liberally and willingly lent me so many valuable specimens from their collections, and to some friends my especial thanks are due. 244 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs To Dr. E. A. S. Elliot and the Rev. H. H. Slater I am deeply indebted for their unlimited liberality of placing their fine collections at my disposal. For the specimens of the whole order of Anseres, I am equally grateful to Mr. John Cordeaux and Mr. G. H. Caton Haigh. And for the loan of many species I must offer my best thanks to Mr. J. H. Gurney, Mr. O. V. Aplin, The Hon. Walter Rothschild, Mr. Scott B. Wilson, Dr. A. G. Butler, Mr. Alfred Beaumont, and the Rev. H. A. Macpherson, and also I much appreciate the assistance I have received from Mr. W. Burton, of London ; Mr. F. Doggett, of Cambridge, and Mr. H. W. Marsden, of Bristol, whose names are well-known for their skill in taxidermy. All the eggs figured in the work (with the exception of the Guillemot’s and Great Auk’s) are from the collections of Dr. Butler, Mr. A. B. Earn, the Rev. Murray A. Mathew, and my own. It is not only for the loan of specimens from the rich cabinet of the Rev. Murray A. Mathew that my sincere thanks are due, but for his untiring and valuable assistance in the selection of specimens most .suitable for figuring ; and also for many specimens I express my gratitude to Dr. Butler and Mr. Earn. The remarkably fine Guillemot’s eggs figured are from the wonderful varieties of this species in the possession of Mr. Hewett, of York, who most kindly sent me a large series of his choicest specimens to select from, and my thanks are likewise due to Mr. F. G. Middlebrook, for so obligingly placing at my disposal his beautiful specimens of Great Auk’s eggs, which are now figured for the first time in colour, and which, I think, will form an interesting addition to the work. October, 1898. F. W. FROHAWK. The Publishers sincerely acknowledge their obligation to the Rev. H. A. Macpherson for his valued services in revising the proof-sheets of this work. Index of Birds. 245 Index of Birds. Vol. page Vol. page Vol. page Acanthis cannabina u 80 Anthus campestris i 199 Black Tern vi 8 flavirostris n 76 * cervimis i 199 Throated Diver . . vi 172 linaria u 69 obscurus i 205 * Thrush i 27 rufescens n 73 pratensis i 195 * Wheatear . . i 33 *Acanthyllis caudacuta .. in 10 richardi i 202 ♦ Winged Kite 111 132 Accentor collaris i 133 * spipoletta i 205 Stilt V 96 modularis i 129 trivialis i 191 Blue-Headed Wagtail . . i 184 Accipiter nisus m 124 Aquatic Warbler i I2I ♦ Tailed Bee-Eater ili 43 Acrediila caudata i 145 Aquila chrysa'etus in 113 Tit i 157 Acroccphalus aquaticus. . i I2I ncevia 111 no Bonaparte’s Gull vi 63 palustris i II2 Arctic Tern vi 42 Sandpiper V 125 phragmitis i 117 Ardea alba iv 13 Botaurus lentiginosiis . . iv 34 sireperus i 108 * bnbulcus iv 18 stellaris iv 29 * turdoides i II6 cinerea iv 5 Brambling n 97 *Aedon galactodes i 106 garzetta iv 15 ♦Brandt’s Siberian Bunting.. n 117 *Ais;ialitis asiatica V 72 pjcrpurea iv 10 Brent Goose iv 84 cantiana V 72 ralloides iv 20 Broad-Billed Sandpiper V 117 curonica V 70 Ardetta minuta iv 26 Briinnich’s Guillemot . . vi 146 hiaticula V 67 Asio accipitrinus in 65 Bubo maximus 111 85 * vocifera V 75 otus in 63 ♦Buff-Backed Heron iv 18 Alauda arbor ea n 178 *Astur atricapillus in 124 Breasted Sandpiper . . v 146 arvensis n 174 palumbarhis in I2I ♦Buffel-Headed Goldeneye . . iv 161 cristata n 182 Athene noctiia ili 74 Buffou’s Skua vi 123 Aka iuipennis vi 132 Avocet v 94 Bullfinch n 53 torda vi 128 * Bulweria columbina vi 239 Alcedo ispida m 32 ♦Bulwer’s Petrel vi 239 Alpine Accentor i 133 Baillou’s Crake V 34 Buteo lagopus in 106 Swift in 7 Bar-Tailed Godwit V 167 vulgaris in 103 American Bittern iv 34 Barred Warbler . i 77 *Butorides virescens iv 22 * Black-Billed Cuckoo.. m 54 Bartramia longicauda . . V 147 Buzzard iii 103 * Blue-Winged Teal iv 128 Bartrani’s Sandpiper . . V 147 • Darter m *63 Bean Goose iv 64 * Green Heron iv 22 Bearded Reedling i 141 Caccabis rufa v 20 * Green-Winged Teal . . iv 128 Bee-Eater iTi 41 Calandrella brachydactyla . . ii 185 * Gos-Hawk 111 124 Bernacle-Goose iv 80 Calcarius lapponicus ii 123 Hawk-Owl in 8b Bernicla brenta iv 84 Calidris arenaria V 141 * Hooded Merganser . . iv 203 leucopsis iv 80 Capercaillie V 3 • Robin i 28 riificollis iv 77 ♦Capped Petrel vi 238 * Stint V 129 Bewick’s Swan iv 93 *Caprimulgus cegyptius . . iii 15 * Swallow-Tailed Kite. . in 132 Bittern iv 29 europccus ili 12 * Wigeon iv 137 Blackbird i 19 ♦ ruficollis iii 15 * Yellow-Billed Cuckoo. ili 53 Blackcap . . i 69 Carduelis elegans ii 65 Ampelis garrulus n 16 ♦Black- E3'ebrowed Albatros vi 240 *Carpodacus erylh^dnus . . ii 57 Anas boscas iv 108 Grouse V 6 Carrion-Crow ii 162 strepera iv 113 Guillemot vi 150 ♦Caspian Plover v 72 * A nous stolidus vi 55 Headed Bunting ii 100 Tern vi 23 Anser albifrons iv 58 Headed Gull vi 68 Certhia familiaris i 172 brachyrhynchns . . iv 68 * Kite 111 131 Chaffinch ii 92 cinereus iv 54 Red.start i 44 *Charadrius fulvus A’ 79 • erythropus iv 63 Stork iv 41 pluvialis v 76 segeliim iv 64 Tailed Godwit .. \' 169 Chelidon urbica ii 33 VoL. VI 2 N 246 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. Vol. page Vol. pcige Vol. page Chen hyperboreus . iv 72 Daulias luscinia i 57 Gecinus viridis iii 21 ChiffchafF i 96 Dendrocoptes major iii 23 Gelochelidon anglica vi 18 Chough n 140 minor in 27 Glareola pratincola V 59 Chrysomitris sphius . ii 61 *Desert Wheatear . . i 33 Glaucous Gull vi 95 Ciconia alba 36 *Diomedea melanophrys vi 240 . Glossj’ Ibis iv 44 nigra 41 Dipper i 137 Golden-Crested Wren . . i 84 Cincliis aquaticus 137 Dotterel v 64 Eagle iii 113 Circus aruginosus 93 Dunlin . . V 122 Oriole ii 2 cineraceus 99 *Dusky Shearwater vi 235 Plover V 76 cyaneiis 96 Goldenej'e iv 156 Cirl Bunting . ii III Goldfinch ii 65 *Clangnla albeola 161 Eagle Owl ili 85 Goosander iv 192 glaucion 156 Eared Grebe vi 197 Gos-Hawk (i.e. Goose- Hawk) iii I2I Coal-Tit 151 ♦Eastern Golden Plover V 79 ♦Gould’s Little Shearwater. . vi 236 Coccothraustes vulgaris . ii 43 *Eg3'ptian Nightjar iii 15 Grasshopper Warbler . . i 123 *Coccystes glandarius . m 53 * Vulture iii 91 Great Auk vi 132 *Coccyziis americanus . . . m 53 *Elatw'ides furcatus iii 132 Black-Backed Gull vi 90 * erythropthalmus . . . m 54 *Elanus ccertdeus iii 132 * Black-Headed Gull vi 75 *Collared Petrel . vi 239 *Emberiza cioides ii 117 Bustard V 47 Coluniba livia 210 drills ii III Crested Grebe . . vi 181 cenas 208 citrinella ii 106 Grey Shrike ii 6 palumbus 206 hortulana ii 114 Northern Diver . . vi 164 *Colymbus adamsi . . . vi 170 melanocephala li 100 * Reed- Warbler i 116 ardicus . vi 172 miliaria ii 103 Shearwater . . vi 226 glacialis . vi 164 • pusilla ii n8 Skua vi 112 septcntrionalis . vi 176 * rustica ii 118 Snipe V 107 Common Crossbill . ii 49 schceniclus ii 119 ♦ Spotted Cuckoo.. in 53 Eider Duck . . 170 Erithacus rubecula i 52 Spotted Woodpecker.. iii 23 Gull 76 ♦Eskimo Curlew V 178 Tit i 147 Heron . iv 5 Eudromias morinellus . . V 64 White Heron iv 13 Pratincole . V 59 European Hawk-Owl . . iii 80 Greenfinch ii 40 Ringed- Plover . . . V 67 Greenland Falcon.. iii 136 Sandpiper 149 Green Sandpiper . . V 154 Scoter 181 Ealco cesalon in 150 Greenshank V 164 Sheld-Duck . . 100 candicans iii 136 Green Woodpecker iii 21 Snipe . no ♦ cencliris iii 155 Gre>' Lag-Goose . . iv 54 Tern 37 * gyrjalco iii 141 Phalarope V 98 Coot 41 islandus ill 139 Plover V 81 Coracias garrulus . . 36 peregrinus iii 142 Wagtail i 181 Cormorant . ili 164 subbuteo iii 145 ♦Griffon Vulture iii 91 Corn-Bunting . ii 103 tinnunculus iii 152 Grus communis V 44 Crake 36 vespertinus iii 148 Guillemot vi 138 Corvus corax 157 Ferruginous, or White-E}'ed Gull-Billed Tern . . . . vi 18 C0V7lix 165 Duck iv 145 *Gyps fulvus iii 91 corone 162 Fieldfare i 14 f rutile gus . . ii 169 Eire-Crested Wren i 89 monedula 153 ♦Flamingo iv 51 Heematopus ostralegus . . V 91 Cosmonetta histrionica . . . , iv 167 F'ork-Tailed Petrel vi 213 Haliaitus albicilla . . iii 118 Cotile riparia ii 36 Eratercula arctica vi 158 Harelda glacialis . . iv 162 Cotiwnix communis . . V 22 ♦Frigate Petrel vi 221 Harlequin Duck . . iv 167 Crane 44 Frin^illa ccelebs ii 92 Hawfinch ii 43 Cream-Coloured Courser . . 62 montifringilla ii 97 Hedge-Sparrow i 129 Crested Lark ii 182 Eulica atra v 41 Hen-Harrier ili 96 Tit 161 Euligula cristata iv 148 Herrinsi Gull vi 80 Crex pralettsis 36 ferina iv 138 Himantopus candidus . . V 96 Cuckoo . . ili 48 mania iv 152 ■ Hirundo rustica 11 30 Cuculus canotns . . iii 48 nyroca iv 145 Hobby iii 145 Curlew . . V 172 rujina iv 142 Hooded Crow n 165 Sandpiper . . 133 Fulmar vi 221 Hoopoe in 45 Cnrsot'ius gallicus . . 62 Fulmarus glacialis vi 221 Honey-Buzzard iii 133 Cyanecula suecica . . i 48 House-Sparrow ii 84 Cygnus beivicki . . iv 93 Hydrochehdon hybrida.. vi 15 immutabilis . . . . iv 99 Gadwall iv 113 leucoptera vi 13 musicHS 88 Gallinago cedes t is . . ... v no nigra vi 8 olor 96 gallinula V 1 13 Hydroprogne caspia vi 23 Cypselus apus 4 major V 107 * Hypo la is icterina . . i 107 melba 7 Gallinula cliloropus V 39 Gannet iii 171 Garden Warbler i 73 Iceland Falcon iii 139 Dafila acuta 120 Garganej' iv 129 Gull vi 99 Dartford Warbler . . 81 Garrulus glandarius ii 146 ♦Icterine Warbler .. i 107 Index of Birds 247 Vol. page Vol. page Vol. page *lsabelline Wheatear i 32 Loxia bifasciata ii 47 *CEsirelala hcesitata vi 238 Ivory Gull vi 108 curvirostra n 49 Oceanites oceanicus vi 218 lynx torquilla \u 17 *Lusci?iiola schwarzi vi 241 *Oceanodroma cryptoleucura . vi 218 leiicorrhoa vi 213 Oriolus galbula ii 2 Jackdaw n 153 Machetes pugnax V 143 •Orphean Warbler . i 69 Jack Snipe 113 Macrorhamphus griseus V 115 Ortolan Bunting ii 1 14 Jay 11 146 •Madeira Storm Petrel . . vi 218 Osprey 111 156 Magpie 11 150 Otis tarda . V 47 Mallard, or Wild Duck iv 108 tetrax . V 50 Kentish Plover V 72 Manx Shearwater vi 229 Otocorys alpestris . u 189 Kestrel 111 152 *Mareca aniericana iv 137 03'ster-Catcher 91 King-P'ider iv 174 penelope iv 132 Kingfisher 111 32 Marsh-Harrier iii 93 Kite m 127 Tit i 154 Pagophila eburnea . vi 108 Kittiwake Gull vi 102 Warbler i 112 Pallas’ Sand-Grouse . iv 216 *Kill-Deer Plover V 75 Martin ”1 33 Pandion halia'etus . TTT 156 Knot V 138 Meadow-Pipit i 195 Panurus biarmicus i 141 Mealy Redpoll ii 69 Partridge . V 17 •Mediterranean Black- Pat us a ter i 151 Lagopus mutits V 12 Headed Gull . . vi 73 cceruleus i 157 scoticus V 9 •Mediterranean Herring Gull vi 242 cr is talus i 161 Lanius collurio n 9 Megalestris caiarrhactes vi 112 major . i 147 exciibiior ii 6 * Melanocorypha sibirica . . 11 188 palustris . i 154 * minor 11 8 Mergulus a lie vi 154 Passer domesticus . ii 84 pomeranus ii 12 Mergiis albellus iv 200 montanus 88 Lapland Bunting 11 123 • cucullatus iv 203 Pastor roseus . n 135 Lapwing V 85 merganser iv 192 Pectoral Sandpiper . V 119 Larus argentatus vi 80 serrator iv 196 *Pelagodroma manna . . . vi 221 • cachinnans vi 242 Merlin iTi 150 Perdix cinerea . V 17 caniis vi 76 Merops apiaster iii 41 Peregrine Falcon . iTT 142 fitscus vi 85 * philipphiiis iTi 43 Pernis apivorus . TTT 133 glaucus vi 95 Milvus ictinus 111 127 Phalacrocorax carbo . TTT 164 * ichthyaetus vi 75 • migrans iii 131 gracnlus 168 lencopterus vi 99 Missel-Thrush i 3 Phalaropus fulicarius . . . V 98 mariniis vi 90 Montagu’s Harrier in 99 hyperboreus . V lOI * melanocephalus . . vi 73 *Monticola saxatilis i 28 Phasianus colchicus . V 14 minutiis vi 65 Moor-Hen V 39 Pheasant V 14 Philadelphia vi 63 Motacilla alba i 180 * Phcenicopterus roseus . . . iv 51 ridibnndus vi 68 Jlava i 184 Phylloscopus rufus i 96 Lesser Black-Backed Gull . . vi 85 lugubris i 176 sibilatrix i 103 * Grey Shrike ii 8 melanope i 181 superciliosus . i 92 * Kestrel iTi 155 7'aii i 187 trochilus i 99 Redpoll ii 73 Mumeniiis arquata V 172 Pica rustica . TT 150 Ringed-Plover . . V 70 iMuscicapa atricapilla . . ii 23 Pied Flj'catcher TT 23 * Sooty Tern vi 55 grisola 11 .20 Wagtail i 176 Spotted Woodpecker iii 27 parva ii 26 •Pine-Grosbeak ii 52 * White-Fronted Goose iv 63 Mute Swan iv 96 Pink-Footed Bean Goose . iv 68 Whitethroat i 65 Pintail . iv 120 •Levantine Shearwater . . vi 235 Platalea leucorodia iv 46 Ligurinus chloris ii 40 •Needle-Tailed Swift iTi 10 Plectrophenax nivalis . TT 127 Limicola platyrhyncha . . V 117 *Neophro7i percnopteriis. . iTi 91 Plegadis falcinellus . iv 44 Ltmosa belgica V 169 Night- Heron iv 24 *Plotus anhinga . TTT 163 lapponica V 167 Nightingale i 57 Pochard iv 138 Linnet ii 80 Nightjar ill 12 Podicipes auritus . vi 192 Little Auk vi 154 •Nodd}' vi 55 cristatus . vi 181 Bittern iv 26 Nucifraga caryocatactes ii 142 fluviatilis . vi 202 * Bunting ii 118 *Numen ius borealis V 178 gmseigeria . vi 188 Bustard v 50 phceopus V 175 nispricollis . vi 197 Crake V 32 Nutcracker 11 142 Polish Swan . iv 99 Egret iv 15 Nuthatch i 165 Pomatorhine Skua . vi 116 Grebe vi 202 Nyctala tengmalmi iii 72 Porzana bailloni 34 Gull vi 65 Nyctea scandiaca 111 77 maruetta . V 28 Owl 111 74 Nycticorax griseus iv 24 parva 32 Stint v 126 Pratincola vubetra i 33 Tern vi 48 rubicola i 37 Locustella luscinioides . . i 127 CEdemia fit sea iv 185 Procellaria pelagica . vi 208 ncEvia i 123 nigra iv 181 Ptarmigan . V 12 Long-Eared Owl 111 63 perspicillata iv 189 Puffin 158 Tailed Duck iv 162 CEdicnemus scolopax . . v 5^ Puffinus anglorum 229 Tailed Tit i 145 *CEstrelata brevipes vi 239 * assimilis . vi 236 248 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. Vol. page Vol. page Vol. page Piiffinus gravis ■■ . . 226 Savi’s Warbler i 127 Sylvia atricapilla . . 69 griseus 236 Saxicola cetianthe i 29 cineira i 62 * obscurus 235 * deserti 33 curnica i 65 * yelkouamis . . 235 * isabellina 32 hortensis 73 Purple Heron 10 * stapazina i 33 nisoria 77 Sandpiper . . 136 ♦Scandinavian G3’rfalcon . m 141 * orphea 69 Pyrrhocorax graculus . . ii 140 ♦Scarlet Rose-Finch . 11 57 undata 81 *Pyrrhula enucleaior . ii 52 Scaup-Duck 152 Syrnium aluco . . Ill 68 enropcva 53 Sclavouiau Grebe . vi 192 Syrrhaptes paradoxus . . . . iv 216 Scolopax rusticula . v 104 Scops giu 83 Quail 22 Scops-Owl 83 Tadorna casarca .. 105 *Querquedula carolinensis . iv 128 Sedge- Warbler i 117 cornula . . iv 100 curia 129 Serin 57 Tawny Owl . . in 68 crecca 125 Serinus hortulanus . n 57 Pipit 199 * discors 128 Shag . m 168 Teal 125 ♦Sharp-Tailed Sandpiper . v I2I Temminck’s Stint . . V 130 Shore-Lark 189 Tengmalm’s Owl .. 72 *Radde’s Bush- Warbler. . . vi 241 Short-Eared Owl . Ill 65 Telrao letrix 6 Rallus aquaticus 25 Toed Lark 185 urogallus 3 Raven 157 Shoveler 166 *Tichodroma niuraria .. i 175 Razorbill 128 ♦Siberian Ground Thrush . i 28 Tolanus calidris 159 Recurvirostra avocetta . . . V 94 Siskin . u 61 canescens 164 Red-Backed Shrike . ii 9 Sitta casia i 165 * flavipes 158 Redbreast 52 Skv-Lark 174 fuscus 162 Red-Breasted Flycatcher . ii 26 Smew 200 glareola 152 Goose 77 Snow-Bunting 127 hypoleucus 149 Merganser . iv 196 Goose 72 ochropus 154 Snipe 115 Snowv Owl 77 ♦ solitarius 157 Crested Pochard . iv 142 ♦Sociable Plover . v 84 Tree-Creeper 172 Footed Falcon . m 148 ♦Solitar}' Sandpiper . v 157 Pipit 191 Grouse 9 Somata'ia mollissima . . . iv 170 Sparrow 88 begged Partridge . V 20 spectabilis 174 *Tringa acuminata.. I2I Necked Grebe . vi 188 stelleri . iv 177 alpina 122 * Nightjar . . . m 15 Song Thrush i 7 canutus 138 Phalarope . . v lOI Soot}' Shearwater 236 fuscicollis 125 Redshank 159 Tern . vi 52 maculata 119 Red-Spotted Bluethroat i 48 Sparrow-Hawk . m 124 minuta , . V 126 Redstart 40 Spatula clypeata . iv 116 ♦ minutilla 129 Red-Throated Diver . . . vi 176 Spoonbill 46 striata 136 * Pipit 199 Spotted Crake 28 subarquata . . 133 Redwing II or Dusky Redshank . . v 162 temmincki .. 130 Reed-Bunting 119 Eagle . m no Troglodytes parvulus . . i 168 Warbler 108 Flycatcher 20 Tryngites riifescens . . V 146 Regultts cristatus i 84 Squacco Heron 20 Tufted Duck 148 ignicapiUiis 89 Squataj'ola helvetica . V 81 *Turdus atrigularis. . 27 *Rhodostethia rosea 59 Starling 132 iliacus II Richard’s Pipit 202 Steller’s Eider . iv 177 merula i 19 Richardson’s Skua . vi 119 Stercorarius crepidatus . . . vi 119 ♦ migratorius . . 28 Ring-Ouzel 25 parasiticus 123 niusicus 7 Rissa iridactyla 102 pomatorhinus . vi II6 pilaris 14 Rock-Dove 210 *Sterna ancesthcta . vi 55 ♦ sibiricus 28 Pipit 205 cantiaca . vi 27 torquatus 25 * Thrush 28 dougalli . vi 31 varius 17 Roller 36 Jiuviatilis . vi 37 viscivorus 3 Rook 169 fuliginosa . vi 52 Turnstone 87 Roseate Tern 31 macrura . vi 42 Turtle-Dove 213 Rose-Coloured Starling . ii 135 minuta . vi 48 Turtur communis .. 213 Rough-Legged Buzzard . m 106 Stock-Dove iv 208 Twite . . ii 76 Rudd}' SheTd-Duck . iv 105 Stonechat i 37 Two-Barred Crossbill . . . . ii 47 Ruff and Reeve 143 Stone Curlew . V 56 *Rufous Warbler 106 Storm Petrel . vi 208 *Rustic Bunting 118 Strepsilas interpres . V 87 Upupa epops . . m 45 Ruticilla phcenicurus . . i 40 Strix flamniea .. . . Ill 59 Una bruennichi . . vi 146 titys 44 Sturnus vulgaris . 11 132 grylle . . vi 150 Sula bassana . iii 171 troile . . vi 138 Surf-Scoter iv 189 Sabine’s Gull . vi 56 Surnia funerea . ill 80 Sanderling . V 141 lUula in 80 *Vanellus gregarius. . 84 Sand-Martin 36 Swallow n 30 vulgaris 85 Sandwich Tern . vi 27 Swift . Ill 4 Velvet-Scoter 185 Index of Birds. 249 Vol. page Vol. page Vol. page ♦Wall-Creeper i 175 Whitethroat i 62 Wood Sandpiper . . 152 ♦Water-Pipit i 205 White’s Thrush i 17 Warbler 103 Rail V 25 White Wagtail i 180 Wren 168 Waxwing ii 16 Winged Black Tern. vi 13 Wryneck 17 ♦Wedge-Tailed Gull vi 59 * Winged Lark 11 188 Wheatear i 29 Whooper Swan iv 88 Whimbrel V 175 Wigeon iv 132 Xema sabinii . . vi 56 Whinchat i 33 Willow-Warbler i 99 Whiskered Tern vi 15 Wilson’s Petrel vi 218 White, or Barn Owl . . 111 59 Woodchat Shrike il 12 Yellow-Browed Warbler i 92 ♦White-Billed Northern Diver vi 170 Woodcock . V 104 Yellow Bunting . . ii 106 Fronted Goose . . iv 58 Wood-Lark . ii 178 ♦Yellowshank 1,58 Stork iv 36 Pigeon iv 206 Yellow Wagtail 187 Tailed Eagle iTi 118 Index of Egg Plates. 251 Index to the Twenty-Four Plates of Eggs. In consequence of the unavoidable dela}' in completing the plates of eggs, it was impossible to place every plate in the volume containing the corresponding birds. If the parts of the subscription edition have been bound as issued, these plates will appear in the following order: — Plates i-iv, Vol. I. ; v-viii, Vol. II. ; ix-x, Vol. III. xi-xiii, Vol. iv. ; xiv-xviiii, Vol. V. ; xix-xxiv. Vol. VI. Fig. PI. Vol Fig. PI. Vol Fig. PI. Vol Arctic Tern 436-437 XX 6 Cuckoo — Sky-Lark 289 viii 3 Hooded Crow . . 237-240 vii 2 Avocet . . 401 XVlll 5 Whitethroat . . . . 272 viTi 3 House-Sparrow 132- 143 iv 2 Yellow Bunting 286-288 vin 3 Baillon’s Crake 382 xvi 5 Curlew -- 424 xix 6 Jackdaw 222-228 vi 2 Barn Owl 290 ix 3 Jay 216-217 vi 2 Bearded Reedling . . . . 68 ii I Dartford Warbler . . -- 45 ii I Bittern 350 xiv 4 Dipper . . 70 11 I Kentish Plover 393-394 xvii 5 Blackbird . . 10-17 i I Dotterel -- 390 XVll 5 Kestrel 331-339 xii 3 Blackcap 38-41-64 ii I Dunlin 409-41 I XVlll 5 Kingfisher viii 3 Black Grouse . . •• 371 xvi 5 Kite 313-318 xi 3 Guillemot 455-456 xxi 6 Fork-Tailed Petrel .. 474 xxiv 6 Kittiwake Gull 448-449 xxi 6 Headed Gull 440-442 XX 6 Fulmar 471-472 xxiv 6 Tailed Godwit 422-423 xix 6 Lapwine 397-398 xvii 5 Tern 426-427 xix 6 Gadwall -- 355 xiv 4 Lesser Black-Backed Gull 447 XX 6 Throated Diver .. 466 xxiv 6 Down - - 355A xiv Spotted Woodpecker 265 viii 3 Blue-Headed Wagtail .. 94 111 I Gannet • - 347 Xlll 3 Whitethroat . . - -35-37 ii I Tit ..78-81 111 I Garden Warbler --42-44 ii I Linnet 158-167 V 2 Brambling 156-157 V 2 Garganey -- 359 XV 4 Little Bittern . . - - 349 xiv 4 Bullfinch 1 74- 1 79 V 2 Down - - 359A XV Grebe 469-470 xxiv 6 Buzzard 300-303 ix 3 Golden-Crested Wren . . 46-48 ii I Tern 438-439 XX 6 Eagle . . . . 305-306 X 3 Long-Eared Owl . . 291 ix 3 Capercaillie •• 370 xvi 5 Oriole -- 103 111 I Tailed Tit . . 69 ii I Carrion Crow . . 233-236 vii 2 Plover . . 395-396 xvii 5 Chaffinch 148-155 iv 2 Goldfinch I29-I3O iv 2 Mamie 218-221 vi 2 Chiffchaff • -49-51 u I Goosander -- 364 XV 4 Mallard, or Wild Duck 354 xiv 4 Chough 214-215 vi 2 Down - - 364A XV Down - - 354A xiv Cirl Bunting . . Iq6-ig7 V 2 Gos-Hawk • - 304 ix 3 Manx .Shearwater . . - - 473 xxiv 6 Coal-Tit • -73-75 m I Grasshopper Warbler - - 63 11 I Marsh -Harrier 294-295 ix 3 Common Eider - - 363 XV 4 Great Auk 463-464 xxin 6 Tit - -76-77 in I Down - - 363A XV Black-Backed Gull 446 XX 6 Warbler ..58-60 ii I Common Gull 443-444 XX 6 Bustard . . -- 387 XVll 5 Martin . . 117 iv 2 Sandpiper 415-416 xviii 5 Crested Grebe . . 468 xxiv 6 Meadow- Pi pit . . . . lOI iTi I Common Sheld-Duck - • 353 xiv 4 Skua -- 450 xxi 6 Merlin 329-330 xii 3 Down - - 353A xiv Spotted Woodpecker 264 Vlll 3 Missel Thrush .. 1-4 i I Common Snipe 405-408 xvm 5 Tit ..71-72 ii I Montagu’s Harrier 2q8-2qq ix 3 Tern 434-435 xix 6 Greenfinch 120-125 iv 2 Moor-Hen 384-385 xvii 5 Coot.. -- 386 XVll 5 Greenshank .. 421 xix 6 Mute Swan - • 352 xiv 4 Cormorant - - 345 xiii 3 Green Woodpecker .. 266 Vlll 3 Corn-Bunting . . 181-187 V 2 Grey Lag-Goose -- 351 xiv 4 Nightingale - - 29-31 i I Crake 37.9-380 xvi 5 Wag-tail . . -- 93 in I Nightjar 257-262 vili 3 Crested Tit .. 82 iu I Guillemot 457-462 xxii 6 Nuthatch --83-84 ili I Crossbill . . 180 v 2 Cuckoo — Chaffinch . . 284 viii 3 Hawfinch 126-128 iv 2 Ospre}- 340-344 xiii 3 Greenfinch . . -- 283 vin 3 Hedge-Sparrow -.65-67 ii I Oyster Catcher 399-400 xviii 5 Hedge Accentor 276-279 vili 3 Hen-Harrier . . 296-297 ix 3 Linnet . . vm 3 Heron -- 348 xiv 4 Partridge -- 375 xvi 5 Pied Wagtail 281-282 Vlll 3 Herring Gull . . -- 445 XX 6 Peregrine 322-324 xii 3 Robin 269-271 vni 3 Hobby 325-328 xii 3 Pheasant -- 374 xvi 5 Rock Pipit . . . . 280 vm 3 Honey-Buzzard 319-321 xi 3 Pied Flycatcher . . no ili I Sedge Warbler 273-275 vili 3 Hoopoe .. 268 vili 3 Wagtail.. .. 91 in I 252 British Birds with THEIR Nests AND Eggs. Fig. ! 1. Vol Fig. pi: Vol ttg. PI. Vol Pintail •• 357 XV 4 Rook vii 2 Tree Creeper . . iii I Down • • 357A XV Roseate Tern . . ■ ■ 432-433 xix 6 Pipit 97-100 iTi I Pochard •• 361 XV 4 Ruff .. 412-414 xvm 5 Sparrow 144-147 iv 2 Down .. 361A XV Tufted Duck . . ■ . . 362 XV 4 Ptarmigan •• 373 xvi 5 Sand-Martin . . .. 118-119 iv 2 Down . . 362A XV Puflfin 465 xxiv 6 Sandwich Tern . . 428-431 xix 6 Turtle Dove .. 369 xvi 5 Sedge- Warbler ..61-62 ii I Twite 172-173 V 2 Quail 377-37S xvi 5 Shag .. ..346 Xlll 3 Short-Eared Owl . . 292 ix 3 Water- Rail 383 xvii 5 Raven 22Q-2'^2 vii 2 Shoveler . . •• ••356 xiv 4 Wheatear i I Razorbill 452-454 xxi 6 Down . . ' . . • ■ • ■ 356A xiv Whimbrel •• 425 xix 6 Red-Backed Shrike 104-108 m I Siskin .. ..131 iv 2 Whinchat •• 23 i I Redbreast . .25-28 i I Sky-Lark . . • • 245-254 viTi 3 White-Tailed Eagle •• 307 X 3 Red- Breasted Merganser 365 XV 4 Snow-Bunting . . 207-209 vi 2 Whitethroat. . ••32-34 ii I Down - • 365A XV Song Thrush . . • • ■ • 5-9 i I White Wagtail . . 92 ili I Red Grouse -■ 372 xvi 5 Sparrow-Hawk • • 308-312 X 3 Wigeon • • 360 XV 4 Legged Partridge 376 xvi 5 Spotted-Crake . . . . 381 xvi 5 Down . . 360A XV Necked Phalarope 402 XVlll 5 Flycatcher .. 111-113 111 I Willow- Warbler ••52-54 ii 1 Redpole 168-171 V 2 Starling . . 2TO-2I3 vi 2 W’oodchat Shrike . . . . 109 ill I Redshank 4IQ-42O xvm 5 Stock Dove .. ..367 xvi 5 Woodcock 403-404 xvm 5 Redstart .. 24 i I Stonechat . . ..21-22 i I Wood- Lark •• 255 vm 3 Red-Throated Diver • • 467 xxiv 6 Stone Curlew . . . . 388-389 xvii 5 Pigeon . . •■ 366 xvi 5 Reed-Bunting . . 198-206 vi 2 Storm Petrel . . •• •■475 xxiv 6 Sandpiper 417-418 xvili 5 Warbler •■56-57 ii I Swallow .. 114-116 iv 2 Warbler • • 55 ii I Richardson’s Skua • ■ 451 xxi 6 Swift . . . . 256 vm 3 Wren ..85-87 in I Ringed Plover 391-392 xvii 5 Wiyneck ■ • 263 vm 3 Ring Ouzel . . 18-19 i I Tawnv Owl . . . . 293 ix 3 Rock Dove • • 368 xvi 5 Teal • • • . 358 XV 4 Yellow Bunting 188-195 V 2 Pipit . . 102 m I Down . . . . 358A XV Wagtail . . ..95-96 111 I FINIS. BRUMBY AND CI.ARKE, LTD., PRINTERS, HUEE AND EONDON. r:>i* *«*▼»' ’.4