THE HOBBY.
This bird still breeds in very small numbers in the Midlands and in the Eastern Counties. It selects the old nest of a Crow, Wood Pigeon, or Magpie, and deposits its three or four eggs in it without any attempt at nest-building. The eggs are yellowish-white in ground colour, but this is almost entirely hidden by the thick marking of reddish-brown.
RICHARDSON'S SKUA.
The islands lying to the West and North of Scotland, also parts of the far north of the mainland, are chosen by this Skua for its breeding quarters. The nest is simply a slight hollow, sparingly lined with a few bits of withered grass, and is situated on wild, unfrequented moors and bog-land. The eggs number two, but upon occasion one only is found, and sometimes as many as three. They vary from olive-green to reddish-brown in ground colour, spotted and blotched with blackish-brown and light grey. I have seen them harmonise so closely with their surroundings that I had a great difficulty in finding them, though I had marked the whereabouts of the nest within a few feet through my binoculars.
THE LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL.
Low rocky islands are the favourite breeding places of this Gull, and they are now particularly numerous at the Farne Islands, where I have seen the eggs lying about so thickly that the visitor had to exercise great care to avoid treading upon them. Sometimes quite a large quantity of seaweed is used in making the nest, at others a few bits of grass and roots, and in some cases, where bare peat earth is available, simply a hollow is scratched out. The eggs as a rule number three, but sometimes only two are met with. I have seen it stated that the bird occasionally lays four, but out of the hundreds of nests I have examined I have never had the luck to see that number. In coloration they vary from pale greyish-green to reddish-brown, blotched and spotted with blackish- and greyish-brown. Sometimes the markings take the form of streaks. The eggs, although as a rule darker than those of the Herring Gull, are very difficult to distinguish, and I have found no safe method short of watching the parent birds on the nest.