NOTES. 59 



that cannot conceivably be learnt in any other way. To 

 place rings on the leg's of young- birds just before they 

 fledge would not be a great difficulty. We should like 

 other readers' opinions on this matter. — Eds.] 



THE SPEING MOULT OF THE ARCTIC TEEN 



[Sterna macrura Naum.). 



The "Scotia" collections (see British Birds, Vol. I., 

 p. 28) include some interesting spring specimens of Arctic 

 Terns. An adult female obtained on March 23rd, 1904-, 

 has already assumed full breeding-plumage and shows no 

 signs of moulting. Another (a male) is assuming its 

 summer hood, leaving the head a mixture of black and 

 white feathers. This specimen still retains the dusky 

 upper wing-coverts of youtli. In addition to gaining the 

 black head for the first time, it exhibits further evidence 

 of moulting, inasmuch as neither the primaries nor the 

 rectrices are quite fully grown, the first jDrimary being- 

 still shorter than the second by about half an inch. I am 

 inclined to think that we have here a bird about twenty- 

 one months old. 



The series also includes two immature examples in the 

 jDlumage known as the *S'. portlandica stage. These have 

 the forehead and crown nearly white, the rest of the head 

 blackish, the lesser wing-coverts conspicuously dark, and 

 the bill and feet black. They are in deep moult as far as 

 their primary-quills and tail-feathers are concerned, but 

 apparently not otherwise. Some of the j^rimaries are only 

 three inches long. 



VViLLiAM Eagle Clarke. 



GOLDEN OEIOLE IN SUSSEX. 



On June 5th last a female Golden Oriole (Oriolus galhukt) 

 was caught and killed by a cat on the Marine Parade, 

 Brighton. Some of the eggs in the ovary were as large as 

 No. 5 shot. 



Herbert Langton. 



[The Golden Oriole is an annual spring migrant to this 

 country, and has been recorded as nesting on a few 

 occasions in Kent and other counties. Those that visit 

 this country, however, rarely escape the gun of the 

 ignorant "collector" parading as an ornithologist. — Eds.] 



