SOME EARLY BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS. 11 



nearly rufous, and in England is abundant and remark- 

 ably rapacious. This kind is wont to snatch food out of 

 children's hands, in our cities and towns. The other 

 kind is smaller, blacker, and more rarely haunts cities. 

 This I do not remember to have seen in England . . . ." 

 (c/. Evans Ed., p. 117). 



His remarks on the Black Tern, which ceased to breed 

 in this country about the middle of the last century, 

 the last recorded eggs having been taken in Norfolk in 

 1858, are also of considerable importance, especially 

 w^hen we consider that this bird still visits the British 

 Isles with unfailing regularity : — " There is another 

 small bird of this kind called Stern* in local dialect, 

 which is so like the sea Lari that it seems to differ 

 from them only in its size and colour ; for it is a 

 Larus, though smaller than the sea Lari, and blacker. 

 Throughout the whole of summer, at which time it breeds, 

 it makes such an unconscionable noise that by its 

 unrestrained clamour it almost deafens those who live 

 near lakes and marshes. This, I certainly believe to be 

 the bird whose vile garrulity gave rise to the old proverb 

 ' Larus partavit.' It is almost always flying over lakes 

 and swamps, never at rest, but always open-mouthed for 

 prey. This bird nests in thick reed-beds " (c/. Evans' 

 Ed., p. 79). 



The care and trouble which Turner took in verifying 

 the statements of Aristotle and Pliny is shown in the 

 following passage : — " The Mergus [i.e., Cormorant], a 

 sad-coloured bird, is nearly equal to a goose in size, with 

 the bill long and hooked at the end ; it is web-footed, 

 heavy in the body, and the attitude is upright in the 

 sitting bird. Pliny writes that it nests on trees, but 

 Aristotle says on sea-rocks. What each man saw or 

 learnt from the reports- of bird-catchers, he has set down 

 in writing. And I have observed both birds myself, 

 for I have seen Mergi nesting on sea-cliffs about the 

 mouth of the Tyne river, and on lofty trees in Norfolk 

 with the Herons" (c/. Evans' Ed., p. 111). 



* "The Black Tern {Sterna nigra).'" 



