154 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



Presidency. In plumage the male differs from the typical 

 Blue-headed Wagtail, M. flava, in having the head pearly 

 grey, not ashy grey, and the face and ear-coverts white. The 

 females and young are not to be distinguished from those 

 of M. flava. 



II. On the Occurrence of the Gull-billed 

 Tern in Orkney. 



By John Bain. 



The known visits of Sterna anglica to our shores have 

 been few and far between, and confined to the south coast of 

 England, but it has occurred as far north as the counties of 

 Lancashire on the west, and Yorkshire on the east. Its 

 appearance at the Pentland Skerries on 7th May is therefore 

 an interesting event. The Orkney bird was probably storm 

 driven to our shores, for it was found in the lighthouse 

 garden in an exhausted state. It is a male, and is now in the 

 collection of British birds in the Royal Scottish Museum. 



[This species is to be distinguished from other Terns 

 visiting the British Isles by its short, stout, black bill, by its 

 long black legs, and by its tail being less than half the length 

 of the wing. There are some twenty-five known occurrences 

 of this bird to England, all except one for the spring and 

 summer. It breeds as near to our shores as the west coast 

 of Denmark, also very locally in South-western Europe, the 

 Mediterranean region, and on the Black and Caspian 

 Seas. Eds.] 



