278 THE BIRDS OF SUSSEX. 



immature plumage. He says that he had seldom met with 

 these birds at any distance from the shore. They seldom 

 attack the larger Gulls, but follow the herring-boats, and rob 

 the smaller ones and the Terns o£ the fish they steal from the 

 nets. The nest has not been found in Britain. 



In the 'Zoologist' (p. 3331), Mr. Ellman notes a pair 

 shot off Hastings in the early part of October 1851 ; and in 

 the same work Mr. Jeffery gives the following quotation 

 from the ' West Sussex Gazette ' of Dec. 28th, 1865, 

 (p. 142, s. s.) : — " A few days ago, as a young man named 

 Collins was wheeling a barrow in a lane, loaded with flesh 

 for dogs, he was suddenly startled by the appearance of a 

 large bird alighting on the flesh, and beginning rapidly to 

 make a meal from it. The young man stepped back to the 

 roadside, and took a long piece of string from his pocket, 

 with which to form a noose. The bird had flown a short 

 distance during this operation. Two sticks were placed on 

 the flesh and the noose laid on them. With the end of the 

 string in his hand he stood back three or four yards ; the 

 bird soon came again, and stepping into the noose was 

 easily captured. It was kept several days alive, but from 

 being confined in too small a place its feathers became 

 worn.^' The bird was presented to Mr. A. E. Knox, 

 who, in acknowledging it, wrote that it was the only adult 

 specimen of the species he had ever met with in Sussex, 

 *nhe breast being of a dirty white instead of the usual 

 mottled brown, which is characteristic of the immature 

 bird.^^ 



Mr. Button, 'Zoologist' (p. 1099), writes that a few of 

 these birds generally occur in the sprat season in November 

 and that four, all immature, were shot off Eastbourne in 

 that month of 1867. 



