Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/393

Rh brown. When the complement of eggs is nearly completed, they are carefully covered over, but the birds are not so particular at first, as I have often seen nests with one or two eggs in, left uncovered; afterwards, and during the time of incubation, they are concealed by a larger covering, not, as Professor Rennie tells us, of dry hay, which is often a scarce commodity in the dabchick's haunts, but with the water-plants or rushes growing by; and one plant, the water crow-foot (Ranunculus aquatilis) appears to be a favourite with them for this purpose. I have seen the eggs covered with this, when the birds must have taken great pains to procure it, as none was growing where the nest was built, or nearer than an adjacent pond, to obtain it from which they must have crossed some dry land. From the quantity of material used for this covering, and the extreme rarity of ever finding a full complement of eggs without it, it is obvious that it is not always hastily placed on when quitting the nest; it must be the work of time to do it, and the covering is allowed to remain, the bird performing her duties of incubation upon the top of it, a situation I have sometimes surprised them in, when plump, in a second they go into the water and are seen no more, leaving behind them no more appearance of nest than a lump of weeds: upon these occasions I have often found both the eggs and covering quite warm, the former far advanced towards hatching.—Christopher Parsons, F.L.S.; North Shoebury Hall, Essex, October 12, 1843.

Notes on the occurrence of the Arctic Tern, young and adult, in Lincolnshire. On the 15th of July I visited the Skegness coast, and was much gratified in discovering at a place called Gibraltar point, several nests and eggs of different species of tern, as also in procuring two beautiful adult specimens of the arctic tern with their young. This species, of which Mr. Yarrell has given an excellent figure and description in his ' History of British Birds,' a work which ought to be in the possession of every ornithologist, appears to be rather plentiful than otherwise in the above-named locality; associating with the common and lesser terns, amongst which it may readily be distinguished whilst on the wing, by its rather slower and more stately flight, as well as by its peculiar note, which is a single harsh scream, repeated at short intervals, being a marked contrast to the clamorous cries of the other species of tern. The nests of these birds consisted merely of a slight depression in the sand of the open beach, just beyond reach of the tide, scantily lined with small fragments of bleached or glittering shells, and contained in every instance but two eggs.—S. Willoughby; Bratoft, near Spilsby, August 17, 1843.

Note on the Northern Diver. A few weeks ago, my uncle, Mr. Edmonston of Buness, shot a young bird of this species (Colymbus Immer of the older writers), which was evidently a bird of this year, the quills being almost unformed, and the bird, in short, being scarcely fledged; this proves that the northern diver breeds in Shetland, a fact I have long suspected. The specimen alluded to was killed from a company of five individuals, two of which were old birds, and three similar to the one procured. The old birds are seldom seen in winter, but the young or immers are then abundant. The dingy grey of the immer appears not to be fairly changed into the beautiful markings of maturity until the third or fourth year. — Thos. Edmonston, jun.; Baltasound, Shetland, September, 1843.