306 THE BIRDS OF DEVOX. 



Fair " ven- clearly showing the eggs and young birds upon the gritty 

 sandy plain near the centre of the island, together with multitudes of 

 Sooty Terns ail facing one way, their heads pointing in the direction of 

 the wind. These photographs were obtained for us by our kind old 

 friend and constant correspondent, Mr. J. Gatcorabe. 



We have ourselves seen and eaten the eggs of the " Wide-awake " at 

 Ascension, and found them very similar in taste to those of the Black- 

 headed Gull from Scoulton Mere in Norfolk. They were often l)rought 

 on board the Cape mail steamers calling at the island. Each bird lays a 

 single egg. (W. D'U.) 



The Sooty Tern is black above, with white underparts, and has a patch 

 of white upon the forehead, with jet-black back and legs. Its eggs, of 

 which we possess a large series, vary greatly in colour, shape, size, and 

 markings, some of the varieties being of extreme beauty.] 



Wlliskered Tern. HydrocheUdon hyhrida (Pallas). 



An accidental visitor, of extremely rare occurrence. 



This Tern ha3 received its English name from the white line which in 

 the adult runs from the gape beneath the eye contrasting with the black 

 ca]) and with the general dark iron-blue and black of the rest of the 

 plumage. It is a southern species, common in the summer on the basin 

 of the Mediterranean, in Africa, India, China, and Australia. Mr, 

 Harting's 'Handbook' enumerates only five examples for the whole king- 

 dom, three of them from the West of England, and there appear to have 

 been no others obtained since his book was published iu 1872. We 

 possess an adult in our collection, which we received some years ago from 

 the late Mr. Burt, the Curator of the Torquay Museum. This exam])le 

 was said to have been picked up at Paignton ; but Mr. Burt had his doubts 

 about it, and would certainly have kept it for his own museum had it 

 been free from suspicion, and to our eyes it looks as if it had been mounted 

 from a relaxed skin. There seems to be only one authentic specimen 

 from Devonshire, the particulars of which are as follows : — 



An adult was picked up on the water by some fishermen, alive, but 

 apparently in an exhausted state, off Plymouth, May lOth, 186.5 (J. G., 

 Zool. 1805, p. 9G29). This beautiful specimen, which was in full breeding- 

 plumage, was presented to Mr. Howard Saunders by Mr. Gatcombe 

 (Yarrell's B. Birds, 4th ed. iii. p. 520).* 



An immature bird shot near Tresco Abbey, Scilly, in August 1851, was 

 the only one known to Mr. llodd ; and according to Mr. Yarrell (1st ed. 

 vol. iii. p. 404) one obtained in August 1836, at Lyme liegis in Dorset- 

 shire, was the first example recorded as having occurred in the British 

 Isles. 



The Whiskered Tern nests commonly in the marismas of the south of 

 Spain, in Turkey, itc, and is said to be a very abundant bird in the Xile 

 valley. 



* We learn from Mr. F. C. Hingston, of Plymoutb, that the WLiskered Tern given 

 to kim by Mr. Gatcombe was a drj skin. 



