Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/446

380 There were fresh eggs, eggs in all states of incubation, and also young birds to be seen, sometimes running about, but more generally skulking under the grass. The down of the nestlings is a sandy brown colour, with yellowish streaks and mottlings, and they have the beaks black and the feet flesh-coloured. I found one clutch of abnormally coloured eggs—a very pale washed-out blue, with a few faint brown smudges on them, and one or two thin streaks almost black in colour. Standing over, and looking at them as they lay in the nest, they had the appearance of being pale blue eggs without any markings, and were of course most conspicuous.

The old birds make a considerable noise as one walks through their nests. About ten feet or so overhead fly a crowd of the Gulls, continually chattering, and occasionally swooping downwards at the intruder. Flying at a higher level are the Terns, also uttering all the time their long-drawn cries; and as an occasional Oystercatcher is disturbed, it will fly rapidly round, continually repeating its shrill whistle. The whole place is pervaded by a faint smell somewhat resembling a fowl-house. Visiting a large colony like this is of course full of interest to an ornithologist, but at the same time it rather gives him a feeling of surfeit, and is not to be compared for a moment to the satisfaction and pleasure to be derived from finding an isolated Ringed Plover's nest, after having exercised the patience necessary to watch the old bird on to its eggs.

Ravenglass. Except that all the nests here were situated among the sand-hills, the description of the colonies on Walney Island will do equally well for those at Ravenglass. There are, I should say, rather a larger number of Gulls at Ravenglass, and the process of incubation seemed there to be rather more forward. I caught a young bird in this colony which had strong quill-feathers in its wings, and could almost raise itself off the ground as it fluttered along. All the young birds I handled, at both places, were in capital condition, their bodies being almost round. They looked decidedly ludicrous when running (which they could do well, with a rather waddling action), especially if you got them silhouetted against the sky-line, when they appeared as a round ball with a neck stretched out in front, and two legs moving at top speed underneath. There was nothing whatever