307 



THE WHITE-WINGED BLACK TEEN. 



Sterna leucojptera, Meissner and Scliinz. 



Has twice been obtained. 



An adult specimen preserved in the museum of the Dublin 

 Natural History Society^ was described by Mr. M'Coy, in the 

 'Annals of Natural History/ vol. xv. p. 271. It was there 

 stated to have been shot on the Shannon^ by John Hill, Esq. ; 

 but this gentleman mentioned, in a letter addressed to the editor 

 of ' Saunders's Newsletter' (April 14, 1847), that he killed the 

 bird on the river Liffey, near the Pigeon-house Eort, Dublin Bay ; 

 — in Oct. 1841. This was the first individual recorded as 

 occurring in the British Islands. I have seen a second specimen 

 of this handsome but singularly-coloured tern, which is believed 

 to have been obtained in Dublin Bay, by the late Mr. Massey, of 

 the Pigeon-house Fort there. The birds of his collection were 

 almost wholly killed by himself in that bay, and, after his de- 

 cease, the one in question came, along with others, into Mr. 

 Watters's possession. 



The Sterna leucoptera is a regular summer visitant to southern 

 Europe, inclusive of Switzerland and the south of Prance, and 

 occasionally appears in more northern countries, having even been 

 met with in Scandinavia. Mr. Yarrell, in 1845, remarked that 

 it had not been found in the north of Prance. In the scientific 

 journal termed ' L'Institut ' of the following year, however 

 (1846, No. 658, p. 273), it was announced as having been 

 procured there, but no locality or date was named. In the same 

 ])aragraph it was said that an adult male in perfect summer 

 plumage was shot on the 20th May, 1843, in the marshes of 

 "d'Herinnes, sur les bords de TEscaut, en aval de Tournay,'* 

 in Belgium. It ranges westward in the Mediterranean to Gibraltar, 

 and inhabits northern Africa. 



