312 BIRDS OP NORFOLK. 



breeding-station of that bird whicli is not also fre- 

 quented by a few lesser terns from some of the still 

 existing- colonies of the latter, the larger species has 

 altogether disappeared. Mr. Stevenson considers that 

 this bird has an advantage also in beino- more difficult to 

 shoot than the common tern, but its fatal gift of 

 curiosity, although exceedingly pretty to witness, ren- 

 ders it an easy victim. I have seen them leave their 

 fishing in a body to examine any strange object floating 

 in the sea, and a boat is almost sure to attract them. 



On the Norfolk coast the names of this bird are 

 various but expressive ; " sea swallow," " small perl," 

 "chit perl," '' dip-ears," and at Holme this year an old 

 man called them " shrimp-catchers," an occupation in 

 which they were busily engaged in a backwater on the 

 salt marsh as we were watching: them. 



STERNA. NIGRA, Linn^us. 



BLACK TERN. 



The black tern is one of the birds which in former 

 days must have been very characteristic of certain dis- 

 tricts of the county, especially in its most eastern and 

 most western parts, and peculiar interest attaches to 

 it as a species formerly very abundant, but which has, 

 perhaps in the memory of some now living, been lost to us 

 as a summer resident. It can hardly be any other species 

 than this which is mentioned in a letter by Sir Thomas 

 Browne to Merrett, dated 29th December, 1668, as the 

 " sterne," and said by him to be " common about broad 

 waters and plashes not farre from the sea," since Turner,* 

 to whom in the preceding paragraph Browne had re- 

 ferred, almost unquestionably meant this bird, as usual 



* lu Wilkiu's edition of Browne's works the word in the MS., 

 abbreviated '' Turn.," is stated to be illegible, whereas Professor 

 Newton tells me that it is perfectly plain, and the difficulty in 

 reading it must have arisen through ignorance of the name of 

 the author cited by Browne. 



