88 BRITISH BIRDS. 



CURLEW NESTING IN NORFOLK. 



A NEST of the Curlew (Numenius arquaia) was found on May 

 I5th, 1910, on a fen in west Norfolk. The nest contamed 

 four eggs, which had been incubated for about a week, and 

 although I did not see the nest myself, I know the gentleman 

 who found it, and can vouch for its authenticity. I am also 

 familiar with the locality, and have seen the pair of Curlew 

 there several times since the nest was found. 



N. Tracy. 



BLACK TERN IN BEDFORDSHIRE. 



When at Woburn on May 17th, 1910, with Mr. H. Boyd Watt, 

 I saw a Black Tern {Hydrochelidon nigra) at one of the ponds 

 there. John Paterson. 



MARKED SANDWICH TERN APPARENTLY 

 NESTING IN ITS FIRST YEAR. 



The watcher over the Sandwich Terns {Sterna cantiaca) at 

 Ravenglass, Cumberland, informs me that early in June, 1910, 

 he watched, through his glasses, a Sandwich Tern uj)on its 

 nest, containing two eggs, and distinctly saw a metal ring 

 upon its leg as it approached its nest. Mr. Smalley and 

 I marked forty-two Sandwich Terns as nestlings at this 

 colony last summer, and as the keeper is quite certain that 

 no Sandwich Terns were marked there in any previous year, 

 it seems almost equally certain that this is one of those which 

 we marked there as a nestling last year, and, if so, is interest- 

 ing in showing that the birds are apparently in adult plumage 

 and breed in their first year and also that the young return 

 to their birth-place to uest. H. W. Robinson. 



FOOD OF THE NESTING LESSER BLACK- 

 BACKED GULL. 



During two visits paid to a nesting- colony of Lesser Black- 

 backed Gulls [Larus fuscus) in W^estmorland I made 

 an examination of the nature of the food of these birds and 

 found it to be of a most miscellaneous character. Garbage, 

 entrails and other slaughter-house refuse comprised the greater 

 part of the food found on the nesting-site, but the remains 

 of small crabs were also found in large numbers, as well as 

 the small pink shells of the tellen {Macoma halthica = Tellina 

 solidula), either deposited in heaps in a complete condition, 



