I 



The Zoologist— October, 1869. 1867 



Black Swan on the Suffolk Coast. — On the 31st of August a beautiful specimen of 

 the black swan was shot whilst swimming in the sea oflf Corton Cliff, near Lowestoft. 

 Ii was forwarded me for preservation: il proved to be a female and in good order; 

 the plumage in excellent condition, without the slightest traces of an escaped bird: 

 if it was so, it had been at liberty some time. The gizzard contained a quantity of 

 sand only. — T. E. Gunn ; Regent Street, Norwich, September 8, 1869. 



[There is no doubt that this, like others that have been killed at large, was an 

 escaped bird : but the facility with which the species breeds renders it very likely that 

 it should become naturalized on the Danube, where il is comparatively unmolested, 

 and where it has been repeatedly noticed by travellers: in England it cm never 

 become a denizen. — E. iV.] 



Scoter breeding in Strathmore. — It may be interesting to some of the readers of 

 the 'Zoologist' to hear of the breeding of the scaler {Oidcmia nigra) in Britain. 

 When in Caiihness last year I saw three pairs of the birds, on the 1st of June, in 

 Strathmore, aud next day was fortunate enough to obtain a single egg. A gentle- 

 man residing in the neighbourhood, to whose kindness I am this year indebted for 

 the female and three eggs, assured me that they bred regularly in that locality. — 

 J. Watson. 



Little Auk at Loughlon. — I have a fine specimen of the roche, or small bLick and 

 white diver, now in my possession : it was shot by a friend of mine at Loughton. I 

 think it a very unusual place for such a bird so far inland : I believe it to be a bird of 

 true oceanic habits, it being so entirely a sea-bird that it is only seen on land or in tlie 

 vicinity of the coast during the breeiling season. — /. A. Clark; 11, Duncan Place, 

 London Fields, April 23, 1869. 



Sootg Tern at Walliiig/ord. — .\n ailult sooty tern (Sterna fuliginosa) was 

 shot on the river at Wallingford, Berks, on the 21st inst., by Mr. Franklyn, 

 and has been sent to Mr. Gardner, of High Holborn, for preservation. The rarity 

 of this tern in Europe may be estimated from the fact that, up to the present 

 time, it has been noticed but once in England and once in Germany. Mr. Yarrell 

 has included the species in the third edition of his ' British Birds,' recording the cap- 

 ture of a single individual alTutbnry, near Burton-on-Trent, in October, 1852. Since 

 that dale,'a second, killed at Proedal, near Magileburg, was noticed by Naumann, in 

 his ' Bird.-i of Germany.' The sooty tern, however, has a wide geographical range, 

 although so little known in Europe. Its chief stronghold would seem to be in the 

 West India Islands, from whence it extends uorthwards into Florida and Georgia. 

 Mr. Dresser observed it at Galveston, in Southern Texas (' Ibis,' 1866, p. 44) ; and it 

 has been found on Christmas Island. Southwards and westwards il ranges as far as 

 Ascension Island, aud is said to be common in the islands of the South Sea. On 

 Ascension Island, the sooty tern nests regularly in great numbers, and an interesting 

 account of this breeding station, from the pen of Lieut. Sperling, will be found in the 

 ' Ibis' for 1866, p. 286. The bird is there known to the sailors as the " wide-awake" 

 tern ; and under this name it is mentioned by Dr. Collingwood in his ' Rambles of a 

 Naturalist on the Shores and Waters of the China Seas' (1868). The sooty tern 

 differs so much in appearance from all the other terns with which we are familiar in 

 England, that an ornithologist could not fail to detect it amongst a host of others on 

 the wing. Il is intermediate in size between the common tern {Sterna Hirundo) wnA 

 the Sandwich tern (S. cantiava). The bill, legs and toes are black ; the head, nape. 



