222 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. vm. 



emarginated. As the young bird does not monlt its primaries 

 until rather more than a year after it is hatched, the shape 

 of this primary is an infalHble distinction during its first 

 winter and summer. A difference in the shape and size of 

 the first primary in young and old birds will no doubt be 

 found to occur in a number of species. It is now well known 

 that such a difference exists in some of the game-birds, 

 e.g. the Partridge. Dr. Hartert has pointed out {Vog. -pal. 

 Fauna, I., p. 403) that the first primary in the juvenile 

 Bearded Tit is much longer than that in the adult, and I 

 have recently noticed that a similar difference is well marked 

 in the larks. UnHke the ducks and game-birds, however, 

 the Bearded Tit and the Larks moult all the juvenile wing- 

 feathers in the first autumn, and the new first primaries are 

 like those of the adults.— H.F.W. 



Occasional High Mortality est Young Common Terns. 

 — Messrs. A. R. Galloway and A. L. Thomson give an interest- 

 ing report (Scot. Nat., 1914, pp. 271-8) on excessive mortahty 

 in the young of Sterna hiriindo in a large colony at Forvie, 

 Aberdeenshire, in the seasons 1910 and 1912. The writers 

 come to the conclusion that the cause of this periodic high 

 mortality is starvation and that '' it seems certain that the 

 food of the young is Yery restricted in kind, and that the 

 supply is liable to be cut off." The adults do not seem to 

 be affected. It is remarked, however, that in 1910 observa- 

 tions showed that the death-rate varied noticeably with the 

 nature of the ground at different parts of the colony, and 

 this fact remains unexplained. 



In the " Report of the Blakeney Point Committee " 

 (Trans. Norf. and Norwich Nat. Soc, Vol. IX., part V., 

 p. 707) it is stated that in 1913 there was great mortality 

 in the young of the Common Terns in this colony, and it 

 is said also in this case that the young died of starvation 

 "as a consequence of the late arrival of whitebait." No 

 proof, however, of this is afforded in the Report, and we 

 think that such occurrences of abnormal mortahty in birds 

 are sufficiently important to warrant still further investiga- 

 tions of a searching nature. 



Little Tern Breeding in East Lothian. — Miss A. 

 Balfour records (Scot. Nat., 1914, p. 263) that a pair of Sterna 

 minuta were constantly flying about one spot on the 

 shore at Tyninghame, and the editors remark that they had 

 seen an egg taken from this locahty in June, 1908, 



