472 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



Messrs Baikie and Heddle state that this species is often 

 observed on Sanday, one of the Orkney islands, "where it usually 

 arrives about the middle of May and departs towards the end of 

 August" from which account we may infer that it breeds there. 



THE BLACK TERN. 



STERNA FISSIPES. 



ABOUT the end of last century Mr Don, of Forfar, catalogued 

 this species as a common one on the sands of Barrie; but as 

 subsequent writers have looked upon it as an extremely rare 

 visitant to our Scottish waters, it may fairly be doubted whether 

 the birds seen by him were resident. The likelihood is that a 

 troop of stragglers had visited the sands referred to, and were 

 noted as common, because there happened to be a flock. Of late 

 years Black Terns have been observed in the spring time and 

 autumn in many Scottish counties ; but these, generally speaking, 

 have been stray birds. In Haddington, Berwick, Aberdeen, Fife, 

 and Dumfries shires many specimens have from time to time been 

 shot and preserved. In the West of Scotland small flocks occa- 

 sionally appear at Loch Fyne and other sea reaches. Mr George 

 Hamilton informs me that he and his brother observed five 

 specimens near Minard in September, 1860; and I have myself 

 seen the species on Loch Lomond, flapping round the boat in 

 which I was rowing, within a distance of eight or ten yards. I 

 may add that one an adult bird was shot near Stranraer on 

 the 29th August, 1868, and preserved by Mr M'Comish, bird- 

 stuffer, in that town; and about the same time, in the year 

 following, a young bird of the year was seen by myself at Girvan, 

 in Ayrshire. Mr Angus informs me that a specimen of the Black 

 Tern was shot near Aberdeen by Mr Giles, a well-known artist, 

 residing in that city;* and that another in summer plumage- 

 was shot by himself at Don Mouth on 30th April, 1867. The 

 specimen on Loch Lomond was seen on the 25th May following. 

 A young bird of the year was shot by Mr Harvie Brown on the 

 banks of the Forth, near Grangemouth, on l()th September, 1870. 

 When Pennant visited the Lincolnshire Fens, in 1771, he 

 found this bird in such "vast flocks as almost to deafen one with 

 * Died October, 1870. 



