2906 THE ZooLoGistT—JANUARY, 1872. 
ring dotterel is at Park Hill, on the Don, on the 9th of April, and on the 
following day I found it at Park House, on the Dee. These are the earliest 
dates of their going inland in my note-book, but generally April is well 
advanced before the birds have all left the coast. I have seen the ring 
dotterel on the Doveran near Turriff and at Huntly, and on the Bogie, the 
Ugie, and the Ythan as far up as Auchterless: at the mouth of this river, 
which is famous for sea-trout and wild-fowl, it breeds on the sands at Forran 
and Furvie in considerable numbers; and at the mouth of the Don, on the 
south side, it reared its young, about thirty years ago, on a gravelly flat, 
which is now sanded up. On this river I have observed the ringed plover 
at Fintray House, Monymusk, White Haugh and the Bridge of Alford, and 
I have received specimens from as far up as Strathdon. On the Dee I have 
also seen it at Nether Banchory, Cults, Upper Banchory, Aboyne, Inver- 
cauld, and between Marr Lodge and the Linn; and on one occasion I heard 
its soft note when engaged with a number of friends in pitching biscuits 
(picnics) at the greedy salmon in the Inver at that historic and romantic 
‘spot, The Colonel’s Bed.—W. Craibe Angus ; Aberdeen, October 2, 1871. 
Common Tern.—An immature male bird of this species was killed on the 
28th of September near Dunnose; it was knocked down with a stone while 
hovering overhead. It had a deep cut on the breast, and the plumage was 
much soiled. I am inclined to believe that the tern had been attracted by 
the innumerable objects floating around and about a recently wrecked 
vessel. That the bird, owing to the rough and boisterous weather, had 
been long fasting, I had, on dissection, ample proof, nothing being found in 
the gizzard—an elongated sack in a state of collapse—but a little half- 
digested sea-weed. Though I know the common tern, and had, during my 
stay in Morayshire, opportunities of observing them, I was puzzled when 
asked to identify the bird, it being too small for an adult common tern and 
too large for the little tern; and it was not till Montagu, Temminck and 
others had been referred to that it was made out to be an immature bird of 
the common species, the Sterna nevia of Linneus, the “ guifette” of Buffon. 
This tern, in point of size, corresponds with one mentioned by Montagu as 
having been shot near Bath in the month of September, the weight of which 
was three ounces, the length twelve inches, breadth twenty-seven inches and 
a half: he remarks, ‘‘ We cannot agree with Dr. Latham in considering 
these birds (guifette or nzevia) as varieties of the Sandwich tern; the vast 
disproportion of the size alone forbids it.” Had he been referring to the 
disproportionate size of the bill I could better have understood it, seeing that 
of the Sandwich tern is two inches and a half long, and that of the common 
tern but one inch and a half.—Henry Hadjield. 
Richardson’s Skua, &c., in Norfolk.—About a month ago a Richardson’s 
skua was shot on the beach at Southwold, Suffolk. Last August I obtained 
several greenshanks, green sandpipers, a whimbrel and some curlews there. 
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