2 STERNA DOUGALLI.—S. FLUVIATILIS. 
returned to its nest as before, and he, walking it up. saw it again most 
distinctly. He then took the eggs, and began to look out for the other bird, 
the nest of which, also with three eggs in it, he at length found; but he did 
not succeed in seeing this second bird so well as the first, though he has no 
doubt that it was also a S. dowgalli, and he saw no other Terns larger than 
S. minuta about. He brought all the six eggs to shew me, but those of the 
second nest are not at all like what I have always supposed Roseate Terns’ eggs 
to be: they were much blotched, and one had a pale blue ground-colour—as 
though laid by an exhausted bird. The eggs from the second nest were fresh 5 
those from the first nest, on which he saw the bird so well, were very hard-set. 
They are more like ordinary Roseate Terns’, but are still somewhat small, 
being less than any we have in our short series, and have not many of the fine 
circular spots, or dots, which have always seemed so characteristic of the rarer 
species, On the other hand, it must be said that Mr. Evans ought to know the 
Roseate Tern well, from his experience at the Farne Islands, where he tells me 
that though he never found but one nest with eggs and one with young, yet 
he declares that by their peculiar note and flight, as well as the colour of the 
bill, the two large Terns he saw on this occasion were nothing else. After 
he had found the first nest, there came by a man looking for Little Terns’ 
nests, and from him Mr. Evans borrowed a pair of binocular glasses (not 
having any with him), and with the help of these glasses he made himself still 
more certain as to the species. Ie saw only these two birds, and thinks their 
mates must have been away fishing. 
I may remark that on the 12th of July, 1880, the late Mr. George Hunt shot 
an adult Roseate Tern off this part of the coast, which he sent to Lord Lilford, 
who wrote to me about it at the time and subsequently recorded it (Zoologist, 
1881, p. 26). This fact, which I think was unknown to Mr. Evans, gives 
colour to his view that the species may breed there, but it must assuredly be in 
very small numbers, and not every year; for on the 13th of June, 1887, my 
brother and I, in company with Mr. Howard Saunders and Mr. Evans, went to 
the place indicated by the last. We saw a few Terns, all 8. minuta, and not 
one that we could fancy was a S, dougalli. | 
STERNA FLUVIATILIS, Naumann. 
COMMON TERN. 
§ 4429. Four.—England (?), before 1843. 
[These were in Mr. Wolley’s collection before he began his Egg-hook, and 
are likely to be correctly assigned, though they have no other history. | 
§ 4430. Zwenty-three.—Blakeney, Norfolk, 1847. From Dr. 
Frere, 1853. 
I have selected these because Dr. Frere said that of all the Terns 
