BLACK TERN. 315 



terminous with our own county, and there he found, as 

 he informed Hewitson, ^' immense numbers " breeding ; 

 but he makes no mention of its doing so in Norfolk. 

 Prof. Newton tells me that though he believes a pair or 

 more appeared almost every spring or summer, as they 

 still may occasionally do, on the Little Ouse below 

 Brandon, they had long ceased to make any stay in that 

 neighbourhood until 1853, when the great flood of the 

 preceding year, which laid thousands of acres under 

 water, was subsiding. On the 21st May, 1853, he, with 

 his brother and the late Mr. Newcome, saw four pairs on 

 Hockwold Fen ; and on the 8th of June following, three 

 nests, two containing three, and one with two eggs, were 

 taken in the adjacent Feltwell Fen. Three of these eggs, 

 one from each nest, are in his collection, and two more, 

 together with a pair of birds shot about the same time, 

 in that of Mr. Newcome, Since then the species has 

 not been known to breed in that district ; and the next, 

 and probably the last, instance of its nesting in Norfolk 

 was in 1858, when a pair bred at Sutton, laying two 

 eggs, both of which were taken, and the birds unfortu- 

 nately shot. These were sent to Sayer, of Norwich, to 

 be stuffed, and from him bought by Mr. Stevenson, at 

 the sale of whose collection both birds and eggs passed 

 into Mr. Colman's possession. In the " Zoologist " for 

 1869 (p. 1868) Mr, Gunn states that on the 20th of 

 April in that year, " an egg of the black tern was found 

 on a marsh near Yarmouth," which he, however, con- 

 sidered to have been probably dropped by chance. 



It remains to speak of this elegant bird, which is lost 

 to us in its original capacity of an abundant native, as a 

 mere passenger in spring and autumn, of pretty constant 

 appearance indeed, and sometimes in not inconsiderable 

 numbers. The arrivals in spring begin as a rule to- 

 wards the end of April, and continue till the end of 

 May, an occasional bird occurring in June or July. In 

 August the young are now and then met with, but the 

 main body, old and young, pass along the shore in Sep- 

 tember and October. Mr. Dowell notes that he has 

 never seen these birds precipitate themselves into the 

 water as the other terns do, but that they take insects 

 off the surface or flying just above it. They have on the 

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