94 BRITISH BIRDS. [VoL. XI. 
Dr. Frank Penrose accompanied me on my third visit, 
and, armed with very powerful glasses, we made a thorough 
examination of the colony. To our great delight we 
eventually quite clearly identified an adult Roseate Tern, 
and possibly a pair were about, but we never clearly saw 
more than one at a time. All the points of distinction were 
clearly noted, i.e. black bill, red legs, rosy breast, and much 
paler and more slender appearance when on the wing, and 
once as the bird passed me it uttered the harsh croak, so 
unlike the notes of the Common Terns. We could not 
discover whether the bird had a mate and was breeding, or 
whether just a straggler, but there is no reason why it should 
not have been one of a breeding pair. The ternery consists 
of some thousand pairs, more or less, of Common Terns (I 
made no attempt at exact estimation) and the identification 
of the birds is somewhat difficult, as they settle down on 
their nests among a luxuriant growth of Lathyrus maritumus 
and Silene maritima and are almost or quite lost sight of.- 
The Roseate in question kept company more particularly 
with the Terns which gathered in large parties on the shingle 
between the nests and the sea, but it also at times joined the 
crowds fluttering above the eggs and young, where it was soon 
lost sight of. None of the young Terns could fly on June 26th, 
but on July 12th many were on the wing, some flying strongly. 
I noticed both on June 26th and July 12th that there was a 
great mortality among the young birds, numbers lying about, 
dead, from no apparent cause. I have heard it suggested 
that the parents cannot obtain sufficient food for the young. 
When scanning the crowds of Terns with my glasses, on 
the lookout for black bills, I saw birds with dark bills and 
distinct white foreheads apparently breeding with the rest ; 
these, I take it, were Common Terns hatched in 1916, and 
apparently breeding in the immature plumage. These were 
fluttering above the nests with the adult-plumaged birds, 
and were most certainly not birds hatched in 1917, as all these 
were still quite small by June 26th. Is this species known 
to breed in the immature plumage? The Sandwich Tern 
seems to attain adult plumage and breed when a year old 
(v. British Birds, IV., p. 88), and it will be interesting if 
observers will state whether it is usual to find the Common 
Tern in immature plumage, i.e. with distinct white forehead 
and darker bill, in a colony of nesting birds, before the end 
of June. F. L. BLaTHwayt. 
[The record of the Sandwich Tern referred to above was 
not at all conclusive proof of breeding when one year old. 
The watcher at Ravenglass distinctly saw a metal ring on 
