256 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



I saw a pair ( <$ and ? ) of Mergansers in a pool on the shore close 

 to where I found the female and young bird in August. I thought 

 at that time they were likely to be on migration, and indeed farther 

 south, on the Ayrshire coast, at Turnberry, on the 5th of June, a 

 fortnight later, I saw ten Mergansers. JOHN PATERSON, Glasgow. 



The Roseate Tern in Aberlady Bay. Terns have been un- 

 usually abundant in Aberlady Bay this autumn, a flock of 500 to 

 1000, nearly all old birds, being a daily sight throughout the month 

 of August indeed I found them there, though scarcely so numerous, 

 on my arrival on the 28th of July. On 3oth July I took special 

 note of a flock which, on a careful estimate, I set down at not less 

 than 500 birds. The great majority were the Common species, but 

 a considerable number were Sandwich Terns, and I made certain of 

 a few Arctics. When I had put them up several times, they grew 

 more restless and began to scatter, some in one direction and some 

 in another. It was then that the Sandwiches, separating from the 

 rest, afforded a good opportunity for estimating their number, which 

 reached fully 100. At the same time, among the odd birds that 

 were flying about, was one distinctly different from the others. 

 Coming towards me, it hovered round several times almost directly 

 overhead, uttering the unmistakable craik, craik, craik of the Roseate 

 Tern (Sterna dougalli]. Its relatively longer tail, long measured 

 beats of wing, and altogether more elegant form than the common 

 species, to which, in size it most nearly corresponded would, apart 

 from its cry, have enabled me to identify it with certainty, In the 

 course of the next ten or twelve days the ranks of the Common 

 Terns had greatly increased, while most of the Cantiacas, and with 

 them probably the Roseate, the Arctics, and a certain section of the 

 common species, had left the locality. No doubt we had been 

 visited by a passing colony, possibly from the Moray Firth. I 

 should perhaps say that during several visits to the Fame Isles a 

 few years ago I had ample opportunities of becoming acquainted 

 with the appearance and cry of the Roseate Tern. Since Jardine's 

 time, when it bred on the Isle of May "in considerable abundance," 

 the species seems seldom to have been detected in the Forth. 

 WILLIAM EVANS, Edinburgh. 



Peculiar Mode of Fishing of the Great Black-backed Gull.- 

 When at Loch Inver in June this year, I noticed a habit of the 

 Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus), which, as far as I am 

 aware, has not been recorded in any account of this bird : it may 

 be exceptional. Whilst walking along the shore of Loch Culaig, a 

 small fresh-water tarn communicating by a short but rapid stream 

 with the salt-water loch below, I observed one of these birds slowly 

 flying about 50 feet above the water, on the narrow part of the loch, 

 near the schoolhouse. Suddenly it checked its flight, hovered for a 

 moment, closed its wings, and fell like a stone (much in the same 



