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SHAG, Carbo cristatus.

Situation. Ledges and apertures on the face of sea-cliffs. I have never seen it, and believe it is confined to a few localities in the islands north-west of Scotland.

Materials. "The nest is formed of a considerable quantity of sea-weed, lined with the finer species and dried grass.”—Mr. Hewitson. Eggs, 4, 5. "The eggs, like those of the cormorant, are outwardly of a soft chalky substance, which is easily scraped off, leaving a hard greenish shell beneath. When fresh-laid they are white, but soon become daubed and stained all over, like the eggs of the grebe, by the materials of which the nest is formed.”—Mr. Hewitson. GANNET, Sula bassana.

Situation. On rocks, as Ailsa Craig in the Firth of Clyde, the Island of St. Kilda, the Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth, Souliskerry near the Orkneys, and the Skelig Islands on the Irish coast. "Upon the precipitous rocks of these islands they breed in innumerable multitudes, occuping all the ledges and summits wherever they can find sufficient space for a nest."- Mr. Selby. The gannets nesting on Borrera, one of the St. Kilda group, are so numerous as to give it quite the appearance of a chalk-cliff.

Materials. Principally sea-weeds, but often various kinds of rubbish found floating on the ocean.

Egg, 1. White, but it soon becomes dirty with being trodden on. "The young, when hatched, are naked, their skin smooth and bluish black, but covered in a few days with a white down, which growing rapidly soon becomes very thick, giving them in this state the appearance of large powder-puffs or balls of cotton."-Mr. Selby. See also Colonel Montagu's account.

SANDWICH TERN, Sterna cantiaca.

Situation. On the ground in the Fern and Coquet Islands, on the coast of Northumberland. "Here a station is selected apart from the other species, generally on a higher site; and the nests are so close to each other as to render it difficult to cross the ground without breaking the eggs or injuring the unfledged young."- Mr. Selby. The bird makes a shallow cavity among the sea campion, which abounds on these islands.

Materials. None, the eggs being laid on the bare ground. Eggs, 3, 4. "Of a cream or wood-brown colour, blotched with dark brown and black, and with other spots of a lighter shade appearing as it were beneath the shell. The common varieties of

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them are either with fewer spots and blotches upon a white ground, or of a deep oil-green, with spots of a darker shade."-Mr. Selby. ROSEATE TERN, Sterna Dougallii.

Situation. On the ground in the Fern Islands of the coast of Northumberland, and the islands of the Firth of Clyde.

Materials. None, the bird only scraping a hole in the sand. Eggs, 3, 4. Cream-colour or pale umber-brown, blotched with two shades of darker brown.

COMMON TERN, Sterna Hirundo.

Situation. On the ground in the islands of the Firth of Clyde, Solway Firth and the Western Islands.

Materials. None: it scrapes a hole in the sand above high-water

mark.

Eggs, 2, 3. Various in the ground-colour, being olive-green, umber-brown, and even cream-coloured, always blotched with two shades of brown.

ARCTIC TERN, Sterna arctica.

Situation. On the bare ground in the Fern Islands, on the coast of Northumberland. "The colony occupies a large spot on the islet selected, and the eggs are placed so near to each other as to render it difficult to traverse the site without crushing some of them.". Mr. Selby.

Materials. None, the bird only scraping a hole in the sand. Eggs, 2, 3. The ground-colour olive-green, with darker blotches. LESSER TERN, Sterna minuta.

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Situation. On the bare ground in several distant parts of the kingdom; on the coast of Lincolnshire, especially about Skegness; on the coast of Northumberland, and on both sides of the Firth of Forth. Materials. None, the bird merely scraping a hole in the sand. Eggs, 2, 3. "Yellowish stone-colour, spotted with black-brown and gray, the spots thickest at the larger end: they do not vary much."-Mr. Doubleday.

BLACK TERN, Sterna nigra.

Situation. In sedgy places in the fens of Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, and Romney Marsh on the coast of Kent.

Materials. "About the middle of May this species prepares a nest of flags or broad grass in the most marshy places, upon a tuft just above the water."- Col. Montagu. Often built on the broad leaves of the water-lily, according to Temminck; and if so, it must float like the nests of the grebes.

Eggs, 4. Olive-brown, blotched with umber-brown.

BLACKHEADED GULL, Larus ridibundus.

Situation. In tussocks of sedge at Palisbourne in Northumberland, and in the fens of Lincolnshire.

Materials. "The gulls trample down the grass on the tops of the tussocks, and thus form a place on which they deposit their eggs, and sit isolated each on his own little island, about a foot or more above the surface of the water or swamp. Thus raised from the surface, they are seen at a considerable distance, and easily observe the approach of an enemy."-Col. Montagu.

Eggs, 3, 4.

Pale olive-green or pale umber-brown, blotched with black-brown or dark gray.

KITTIWAKE, Larus tridactylus.

Situation. On sea-cliffs at Flamborough Head in Yorkshire, the Fern Islands on the coast of Northumberland, Fowls Heugh near Stonehaven, the Bass Rock and the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth, Ailsa Craig in the Firth of Clyde, and many other similar situations. At Fowls Heugh they are said to breed in vast numbers, but never in the Isle of Wight, as Mr. Yarrell supposed. "At Buraforth, a fishing station belonging to Mr. Edmonston," one of their breeding stations, "the ledges of the rocks were to a great extent whitened with their numbers, as much as they would have been by a fall of snow." Mr. Hewitson.

Materials. The birds collect a little dry sea-weed and dry grass, and arrange it very carelessly on narrow ledges on the face of the cliffs.

Eggs, 2. Gray, blotched with darker gray and black-brown.

COMMON GULL, Larus canus.

Situation. "At St. Abb's Head, a bold and rocky headland of Berwickshire, these birds are very numerous in the breeding-season, and occupy the whole face of the cliff."-Mr. Selby.

Materials. "The nest is formed of sea-weed, dry grass, &c."Mr. Selby.

Eggs, 2, 3. "The eggs, two and sometimes three in number, are of a pale oil-green or a yellowish white colour, blotched irregularly with blackish brown and gray."—Mr. Selby.

LESSER BLACKBACKED GULL, Larus fuscus.

Situation. On the ground or in hollows or depressions of the rocks on the coast of Northumberland and St. Kilda.

Materials. Dried grass, sometimes intermixed with sea-weed, generally comprising altogether a considerable mass.

Eggs, 3.

Olive-brown or light testaceous-brown, thickly spotted

and blotched with brown of two shades.

HERRING GULL, Larus argentatus.

Situation. On sea-cliffs and rocky islands near the coast of Wales, St. David's Headland, the Isle of Wight, St. Kilda, &c.

Materials. Dry grasses and feru (Eupteris aquilina).

Eggs, 3. "The fishermen told us that these gulls will lay three eggs again, if the first three are taken, and three more when the second three are taken, but no more than this, nine being the whole stock for one year."-Rusticus. They are olive-brown, with blackbrown spots. At Freshwater these gulls "are for ever scanning the face of the cliff to catch a glimpse of an unprotected egg of the guillemot directly a gull has found one he charges point-blank at the small end, using his beak as a lance: the huge egg, thus pierced, sticks on his beak, and he flies away as though he were carrying a great pear in front of his head in this way he sucks out all the goodness while on the wing, and drops the shell when empty. These shells, with a great hole at one end, may often be found upon the downs above." -Rusticus. "This bird is easily domesticated, and breeds in confinement."-Zool. 1385.*

GREAT BLACKBACKED GULL, Larus marinus.

Situation. On the ground on the Steep Holmes and Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel, Souliskerry in the Orkneys, the Bass Island in the Firth of Forth, St. Kilda, &c.

Materials. Sea-weed and dry grass in large quantities.

Eggs, 3. Dark olive-green, blotched with black-brown.

COMMON SKUA, Lestris catarractes.

Situation. On the ground on wild heaths in the Shetland Islands, breeding in companies on the hills called Foula and Ronas, on the main island; and also on the small island of Unst.

Materials. Dried grass and dry ling.

Eggs, 2. Dark olive-green or olive-brown, blotched with blackbrown, intermixed with a few small whitish spots.

RICHARDSON'S SKUA, Lestris Richardsoni.

Situation. On the ground on wild heaths, both in the Orkney and Shetland Islands, breeding in companies.

Materials. Dried grass and moss.

Eggs, 2. Dark olive-green, with irregular blotches of brown.
FULMAR PETREL, Procellaria glacialis.

Situation.

Sea-cliffs in the St. Kilda Islands.

Materials. Generally a small quantity of thrift and dried grass.

Egg, 1. White. Sir Wm. Milner in the 'Zoologist,' Mr. Hewitson in his 'Oology,' and Mr. Macgillivray in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal,' have severally given some account of the nesting of the fulmar. I quote from Mr. Macgillivray's: -"The fulmar exists in St. Kilda in almost incredible quantities, and to the natives is by far the most important production of the island. It forms one of the principal means of support to the inhabitants, who daily risk their lives in its pursuit. The fulmar breeds on the face of the highest precipices, and only such as are furnished with small grassy shelves, every spot of which, above a few inches in extent, is occupied by one or more of its nests. The nest is formed of herbage, seldom bulky, generally a mere shallow excavation in the turf, lined with dried grass and the withered tufts of the sea-pink, in which the bird deposits a single egg, of a pure white colour when clean, which is seldom the case, and varying in size from 2 inches 7 lines to 3 inches 1 line in length, by 2 inches in breadth. On the 30th June, having partially descended a nearly perpendicular precipice 600 feet in height, the whole face of which was covered with nests of the fulmar, I enjoyed an opportunity of watching the habits of this bird, and describe from personal observation. The hests had all been robbed about a month before by the natives, who esteem the eggs of this species above all others. Many of the nests contained each a young bird a day or two old at the farthest, thickly covered with long white down. The young birds were very clamorous on being handled, and vomited a quantity of clear oil, with which I sometimes observed the parent birds feeding them by disgorging it."

MANX SHEARWATER, Puffinus Anglorum.

Situation. On the ground in the Orkney Islands and Scilly Islands. Materials. A little dried fern: the bird scratches a hole between two stones or in crevices of the rocks, or makes a burrow in the sand. "The egg is frequently deposited on the fine sandy soil without any preparation, though generally there is a slight accumulation of fernleaves and old stems. They produce but one egg, which, when laid,

is of the most dazzling whiteness, and of peculiarly beautiful texture." -Mr. Mitchell in Mr. Yarrell's' History of British Birds.'

Egg, 1. ends.

White, the size of a hen's egg, but equally blunt at both

FORKTAILED PETREL, Thalassidroma Leachii.

Situation. On the ground in St. Kilda, the Orkney Islands, &c. "Not far from the top of the cliff were a colony of the fork tailed petrel, breeding under the stones and rocks about a yard deep we

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