Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/94

64 in considerable numbers on various parts of the beach. As a rule the birds were congregated into colonies, but I found two separate nests in quite isolated positions. In the colonies the nests were on an average fifteen or twenty yards apart. The variation in colour and in size of the eggs, even in the same nest, was very great. Their nests—merely a shallow scrape out in the shingle—were in most cases lightly lined with dry grass. In several instances I found eggs indented and cracked, due no doubt to the unevenness of the bottom of the nest causing undue weight on one portion of the egg when the bird is sitting on the nest. At this date I found eggs with the young birds beginning to form, and others quite fresh. July 16th–21st. I did not notice so many of these birds on this visit, but, as I was chiefly on the western edge of the beach, from which the birds had been driven by the artillery practice, that was probably the only reason for my not noticing so many. I was told that the majority of them were to be found to the east of Dungeness Point.

(Sterna minuta).—Local name, "Skerrek." May 10th–14th. Common about the beach, but not yet started laying. June 3rd–4th. Found them nesting in small companies in a good many places on the beach. They seem to choose places where the shingle is small and comparatively fine, and often do not even trouble to make the usual slight scratch out, laying their eggs in a chance depression, such as a footstep. The nests in these colonies were generally rather closer together than in the case of the Common Tern—say, about eight to ten yards apart. There was no real attempt at lining any of the nests I saw, although they occasionally had an odd blade of grass in them. Several of the eggs I found were showing signs of incubation. There was not quite so much variation in the colour and size as in the eggs of the Common Tern. The complement of eggs in both species seems to be either two or three.

(Larus ridibundus).—Local name, "Crock." May 10th–14th. There is a fair-sized colony of these birds on some pools of water in the middle of the beach. Round the edges of these pools there is a thick growth of reeds and sedges, extending some way from the banks. Most of the nests were resting on the flattened tops of these reeds, which formed a fairly substantial support. The nests themselves were careless structures, the outer part made of dead reeds, with an occasional lining of dry grass, but quite as often without any fine lining at all. All these nests were built on the side of the rushes farthest from the land, and were on this account difficult to get at, as the water at the edge is covered by a treacherous layer of dead vegetation. This is not safe to trust one's weight on, for if