ARCTIC TERN. 515 



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-preserver. Hundreds were seen at Cofton Hall, near 

 Bromsgrove ; 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 westward, 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 numbers seen by ornithologists 

 who are well acquainted with species, the written descrip- 

 tions I have received, and some specimens I have seen that 

 were sent up to London, I have no doubt that the great 

 bulk 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 

 Lincolnshire, Durham, and Northumberland, it is again 

 found. Sir William Jardine says it is perhaps the most 

 common species in Scotland, and abounds during the 

 breeding-season upon all the rocky islands in the Forth, 

 from Queen's-ferry to the Farn Islands ; and Mr. Selby 

 says of Sutherlandshire, 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 Tern breeds in great numbers on Coquet 

 Island a few miles south of the Farn Islands. The eggs, 

 two or three in number, are very much like those of the 

 Common Tern in shape, colour, and markings, but always 



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