314 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



that species.^ Again, in 1818, on the 26th of May 

 (torn. cit. p. 247), he "went into the marshes at Win- 

 terton," and saw (he does not say that he was this time 

 shooting), among other birds, common, lesser, and black 

 terns. Considering the season of the year, I think we 

 may safely infer that this species was then nesting in 

 those marshes. Moreover, Lubbock, in a note, probably 

 made in that same year, states that it " breeds in 

 myriads at Upton," near Acle. Subsequently, but before 

 1843, he sent Yarrell word that it " used to breed in 

 Norfolk in great abundance, but that the great breeding- 

 place in a wet alder carr at Upton, where twenty years 

 back hundreds upon hundreds of nests might be found 

 at the end of May, has been broken up for some years, "f 

 adding that the "blue darr," as the species was called 

 in that district, " can hardly be said at present to breed 

 regularly in Norfolk, a few straggling pairs only still 

 nest here." Sheppard and Whitear merely catalogue 

 its name, while Hunt, in his list of 1829, simply says 

 of it, "on most of the broads." The Pagets, in 1834, 

 speak of it as being " sometimes in plenty on the beach " 

 at Yarmouth. Mr. J. H. Gurney tells me that he visited 

 Winterton decoy, he thinks in 1838, and recollects 

 being told that black terns had quite recently nested in 

 that neighbourhood, though they had tlien ceased to do 

 so regularly. In 1846 the species was regarded by 

 Messrs. Gurney and Fisher as a merely passing migrant, 

 " common " in spring and " occasional " in autumn. 

 More precise data for determining the extinction of 

 this once abundant species as a native of the eastern part 

 of Norfolk are wanting. 



In the western part of the county, the Fen district, 

 it possibly held its ground longer, though there is no 

 direct evidence of the fact. On the 19th of May, 1832, 

 as shown by an entry in his diary, Salmon visited Crow- 

 land Wash, which is indeed in Lincolnshire, though con- 



* The Rising collection at Horsey contained two eggs, with 

 the birds which had no doubt been taken there ; they were 

 purchased at his sale by Mr. Holmes. 



t An " Upton Drainage Act " was obtained in 1799, and, though 

 not alluded to by Lubbock, the destruction of the breeding-places 

 of the black tern was most likely one of its effects. 



