LETM5 



THE BLAKENEY POINT TERNERY. 



To the Editors of British Birds. 



Sirs, — How long the Common Tern has nested at Blakeney there 

 is probably no means of ascertainmg now, but my father could speak 

 to the settlement bemg in existence in 1830, or thereabouts, but 

 probably it is much older than that. At that time there is reason 

 to believe the chief breeding-place was not at Blakenej', but on the 

 shingle beach at Cley, a mile to the east. It is, as Mr. Rowan says 

 in his very interesting article {antea, p. 250), all a continuation of 

 the same shingle spit, which begins at Weybourne and broadens 

 as it goes westwards. My father, who was born in 1819, covild also 

 remember when Avocets still bred at Salthouse and Cley, but it is 

 probable that there were never many of them and they soon became 

 rare. I have seen a note written in 1838 which states that they were 

 then very scarce at Salthouse, and mentions that two had been 

 recently killed. J. H. Gurney. 



Keswick, Norfolk, April Idth, 1915. 



To the Editors of British Birds. 



Sirs, — In Mr. Rowan's very interesting article it is stated that 

 the Common Terns invariably intimate their feelmgs by vittering 

 their characteristic angry " pirre " when diving at the head of a 

 human intruder. This I submit is not quite correct. The notes 

 " pee-er " and "kip, kip" (given in the late Howard Saunders's 

 Manual as " pirre " and " kik-kik") are often heard when the birds 

 are fishing as well as at the Ternery. Their anger is expressed by 

 a long-drawn "pee-er" and at times they hover over an intruder, 

 but when stooping at his head the note is always " kuk-uk-uk-uk-uk," 

 the bird sheering off when a foot or two above him and never actually 

 striking. It is very curious that the note " kuk-uk-uli-uk-uk " is 

 also uttered by the female when recei\'ing dainty morsels from her 

 partner. There being no noticeable sex-difference, I determined 

 the gender of the birds by their behavioiu". Lastly, the note 

 " ker-er-er-er-er," not vmcommonly heard, is invariably uttered 

 when one bird is chasing another on the wing. J. Few. 



Southport and Wigan, April l'2th, 1915. 



