402 LARID.E. 



along the channel coast." Mr. H. E. Strickland has pub- 

 lished in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History for 

 June, 1842, a notice of the simultaneous appearance of this 

 bird over a large extent of country in the same vicinity. 

 Forty specimens procured on the 8th and 9th were taken to 

 one bird-preserver at Evesham. Mr. John Evans, of Grove 

 House, Worcester, sent me notice of the numbers seen there, 

 and thirty-three specimens were deposited with one bird-pre- 

 server. Hundreds were seen at Cofton Hall, near Broms- 

 grove, and Tewkesbury, Hereford, Devizes, and Trowbridge, 

 are places mentioned as having been visited by considerable 

 numbers. The wind had been blowing hard for many days 

 from the east and N, E., but suddenly changed to the west- 

 ward, continuing to blow hard. Some of the specimens had 

 not acquired the perfect black head peculiar to the breeding- 

 season, but all were on their route to their northern summer 

 quarters, their intended course having been interfered with by 

 the prevailing strong winds. A few of the Common Tern 

 were said to have been found with them, but from the num- 

 bers seen by ornithologists who are well acquainted with spe- 

 cies, the written descriptions I have received and some speci- 

 mens I have seen that were sent up to London, I have no 

 doubt that the great Inilk of the flights were composed of 

 Arctic Terns, I have been told that a few of this same 

 species breed on the Scilly Islands every year, but it is not 

 common generally on the south or south-eastern coasts. On 

 the coasts of Durham and Northumberland it is again plenti- 

 ful. Sir William Jardine says it is perhaps the most com- 

 mon species in Scotland, and abounds during the breeding- 

 season upon all the rocky islands in the Forth, from QueenV 

 ferry to the Farn islands ; and Mr. Selby says of Sutherland- 

 shire, that this bird is abundant upon all the Friths, and 

 upon the flat coast of Tongue. Mr. W. C. Hewitson, in 

 his work on the eggs of British Birds, says, the Arctic Teui 



