white-winctEd black tern. 317 



as stated by Mr. Yarrell ("Zoologist," p. 3911), was 

 shown to him in the flesh. It passed into the possession 

 of the late Mr. Rising, of Horsey, by whose keeper it was 

 killed. At the dispersal of that gentleman's collection 

 it was purchased by the late Mr. William Jary. From 

 the information given to Mr. Rising, it appears probable 

 that two of these birds were associating with ordinary 

 black terns, but his keeper supposing it to be merely a 

 variety, and having killed five of the commoner species, 

 did not shoot the other although he had every oppor- 

 tunity of doing so. The 17th of May is the date usually 

 assigned for this occurrence, but in Mr. Rising's own 

 note, in his copy of Yarrell, from which I gather the 

 above particulars, the 18th is the day mentioned. 



The next occurrence of this species was on the 27th 

 of June, 1867, when a beautiful adult male was killed 

 on Hickling Broad (" Zoologist," 1867, p 951) ; this 

 bird was purchased by Mr. Stevenson, and at the sale 

 of his collection was acquired by Mr. Connop. 



On the 26tli May, 1871, after a very tempestuous 

 night, Mr. Booth killed four of these birds, two males 

 and two females, out of a flock of five, at one discharge 

 of his big gun, soon after daylight, on Breydon ; the odd 

 bird was saved by not alighting with the others. The 

 two males were in perfect breeding plumage, but Mr. 

 Stevenson, who examined them in the flesh, states that 

 the females presented a marked difference in appearance ; 

 the tail feathers, which in the adult males are pure 

 white, were in the females light grey, and the feathers on 

 the back lighter in tint than in the males. Mr. Booth 

 ("Rough I^otes") states that in the spring of 1872 a 

 pair were seen on Breydon by one of the gunners who 

 had been present when the last-mentioned examples 

 were procured. On the 28th May, 1878, Mr. Booth 

 killed five more of these birds out of a flock of seven, on 

 Hickling Broad, and several others are said to have 

 frequented the broad at the same time, which happily 

 escaped. Mr. B. C. Silcock informed Mr. Stevenson 

 that on the 8th June, 1883, while sailing on Barton 

 Broad, he saw a pair of these birds hovering over the 

 water, occasionally settling on a post ; Mr. Silcock had 

 excellent opportunities of watching them, and was 



