86 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. yii. 



in Romney Marsh. It was a drake, not quite in full breeding- 

 plumage. It appears from The Birds of Kent that there 

 are only one or two previous records for Kent. 



H. G. Alexander. 



INCUBATION-PERIOD OF THE COMMON 

 SANDPIPER. 



On May 27th, 1913, at 7 p.m., on the north side of Morecambe 

 Bay, I found a nest of a Common Sandpiper {Tringa hypoleuca) 

 containing four eggs, on which the bird was sitting closely. 

 The nest was visited on and off until June 17th, this being 

 the last night when the nest contained eggs, the bird on 

 every occasion sitting very close and allowing approach 

 to within two to three feet. At 7 p.m., on June 18th, the 

 nest was empty save for a few minute pieces of eggshell, 

 and the parent birds — ^which up to this time had not 

 been heard — were anxiously calling and running about. It 

 was not until June 21st, however, that the young were 

 discovered. 



Not counting May 27th — although the nest quite probably 

 contained the full clutch of eggs the day before — and 

 including June 17th, on which night the eggs were still in 

 the nest, the incubation-period in this case was at the least 

 twenty-one days, and may even have been twenty-three days. 



As some works give " about fourteen days " as the period, 

 is not the present case unusual ? H. B. Turney. 



[Mr. W. Evans {Ihis, 1891, p. 81) states that an egg in an 

 incubator hatched on the tAventy-second day, which agrees 

 with the above observation. Naumann, however, gives two 

 weeks as the period. — ^Eds.] 



GULL-BILLED TERNS IN SUSSEX. 



Several specimens of the Gull-billed Tern {Sterna n. nilotica) 

 were reported to me whilst staying at Pett, Sussex, as having 

 been seen along the coast, being " mobbed " by Lesser 

 Terns. I was not fortunate enough to see any on the wing, 

 as they seemed to keep more to the eastward. However, 

 it was not long before they were discovered, with the result 

 that a male was shot on June 18th, 1913, a female on the 

 21st, and another male on the 23rd. I only saw one in the 

 flesh, but the other two were seen by Mr. Ruskin Butterfield, 

 and there is no question about their being of the same 

 species. All three were obtained near Winchelsea, and as far 

 as I can ascertain none have been seen since in the locality. 



H. W. Ford-Lindsay. 



