142 A CATALOGUE OF THE BIRDS 



I have frequently seen this species at Prestwick Car in the 

 bi'eeding season; and one that was shot there on the 27th of 

 June, 1840, had the naked spaces on the breast of a breeding 

 bird. 



25. Aectic TEEif. S. PAHADisEA, Brunnich. 



Sterna arctica, Yarrell, Hist. Brit. Birds, Ed. 2, III., 507. 

 ,, macrura, Gould, Birds of Gt. Britain, Part YIII. 



A spring-and-autumn migrant. Common. Breeding at the 

 Fame Islands, and also some years ago at Coquet Island. 



26. EosEATE Tern. S. Doxtgaliii, Montagu. 



Sterna Bugallii, Bewick, Hist. Brit. Birds, Ed. 1847, II., 179. 

 „ ,, Yarrell, Hist. Brit. Birds, Ed. 2, III., 501. 



This beautiful bird is a spring-and-autumn migrant, and is 

 much rarer than the three preceding species. A few pairs breed 

 annually at the Parne Islands. 



While on an ornithological tour to the west coast, my attention 

 was arrested by a Tern on the sands at Morecambe Bay ; it was 

 making the most extraordinary movements, and was evidently 

 in trouble ; so intent was it on rubbing its head from side to side 

 upon the sand, that it allowed me to approach within gunshot. 

 I killed the bird, and to my surprise found a cockle firmly fixed 

 on the upper mandible, which was inserted nearly half-an-inch 

 between the valves of the shell, and was indented by its grasp : 

 a rather strange example of the biter bit. 



Accidents of this nature are probably not unfrequent. Mrs. 

 Edmond Crawshay met with a similar occurrence. As she was 

 one day riding across Eenham Plats, with her father, they ob- 

 served a Peewit in great distress, rolling about on the mud. 

 The gentleman dismounted, and after a long chase succeeded in 

 taking the bird ; but its effort to escape was its last struggle ; 

 when taken up it was dead, and a cockle was found firmly grasp- 

 ing the bill, which was inserted between the valves in the same 

 manner as in the case of the Tern. Prom the evidently exhausted 

 state of the bird, it is probable that it had been struggling for 



