308 BIRDS OP NORFOLK. 



In the following year, 1850, on the 24th May, a fine 

 male bird in breeding plumage was killed at Yarmouth, 

 which, as Mr. Gurney remarks (" Zoologist," p. 2853), 

 was probably on its way towards its breeding-place, in 

 the Frisian islands, as were other spring birds of passage 

 obtained on the same day. In 1851, early in the month 

 of July, an adult male was killed also at Yarmouth, 

 which is now in the collection of the Rev. H. T. Frere, 

 of Burston. 



I know of no other occurrence of this bird in the 

 county of Norfolk till the year 1878. On the 8th of 

 May of that year, as recorded in the " Zoologist " for 

 1880, p. 53, by Mr. Gunn, two gull-billed terns were 

 shot near Yarmouth, one of which, an adult bird, was 

 too far gone to be preserved, but the other, also adult, 

 and a female, was preserved by him. And, lastly, in 

 July of the same year, one now in the collection of Dr. 

 Whitty, of Hunstanton, was killed near the railway 

 station of that town, and taken to its present owner in 

 the flesh. 



Mr. Dack, bird-preserver, of Holt, assures me that 

 he had a gull-billed tern about the year 1865, at the end 

 of August. Mr. Dack is well acquainted with all the 

 terns usually found on our coast, and I have every 

 reason to credit his statement. Mr. Gurney gave one 

 of these birds, which was killed at Hunstanton, to Mr. 

 Heysham, but whether one of those already recorded 

 it is impossible to say ; he also gave a Norfolk-killed 

 specimen to the Wisbech Museum, where it now is. 

 Beside these he saw another at a poulterer's at Peter- 

 borough, believed to have been killed somewhere in the 

 Wash. It is unfortunate that the dates of all these 

 three birds are now lost. 



It will be seen that of the nine recorded examples of 

 this bird which have occurred in Norfolk, eight were 

 killed at Yarmouth, or perhaps Breydon, and one at 

 Hunstanton. One was killed in the month of April; 

 three in May ; three in July ; and two in September. 



