57 
water with its wing tips for several yards. The general colour is 
of course black, the head and neck having a violet sheen. A narrow 
strip of white extends from the front angle of the eye to a quarter 
of an inch behind it. On the wing is a large patch of white, which 
shows to advantage when flying, the greater part of the outer eleven 
secondaries and the tips of their coverts being of that colour. 
I shall simply give a list of the Gulls I have seen on the marshes, 
viz :—Greater and Lesser Black-backed, Common, Black-headed, 
Herring Gull, and the Kittiwake. The Little Gull (Zarus minutus) 
in the possession of Mr. G. Dawson was shot by him on Rockliffe 
Marsh in 1857, and is in winter dress. 
Mr. Smith, of Castletown, shot a Buffon’s Skua (S. parasiticus) 
in 1879. Another was shot by a fisherman named Baty at Stainton 
about three years ago. (B. of C, p. 179.) 
A number of Common Terns (Sterna fluviatilis) visit Rockliffe 
Marsh every May for breeding purposes. On going to their nests, 
one is sure to be met by several of them. As you draw near, they 
are all on the wing, wheeling around you, sometimes quite close to 
the ground, then high above you, but all the time uttering their 
harsh cries. They are indifferent walkers, but when on the wing 
their flight is easy and elegant. The Black Tern (& migra) is of 
rare occurrence in this neighbourhood. A bird shot by Mr. Wm. 
_ Dawson, on Rockliffe Marsh, more than twenty years ago, is now 
inthe Bellevue collection. On the 3rd of June, last year, I had 
the pleasure of watching a Black Tern on the Eden. Its flight, 
while hawking flies off the water among the weeds, was very rapid, 
and its turns short. 
The Puffin, Razorbill, and Guillemot have all been met with; 
but they have been mostly birds washed ashore, or else driven 
there for shelter. 
__ Of the Grebes, the Little Grebe, or Dabchick (Z: fluviatilis) is 
generally to be found. A Sclavonian Grebe (P. auritus) was killed 
in rather a curious manner by Mr. Thos. Sinclair, of Rockliffe, a few 
_ yearsago. While fishing for salmon on the Eden, near the Carbed 
3 islands, below Beaumont, he found his fly fast in something which 
__ he landed with great difficulty. On getting it ashore, it proved to 
