32 



British Birds, with their Nests a'nd Eggs. 



" In my specimens, which were those preserved by Dr. McDougall and procured 

 for me at his sale, the upper [outer] feather of the tail exceeds the next to it by 

 about three inches, and the wings by three and a half in the male, in the female 

 by about half an inch less. A third specimen was given me by Colonel Montagu." 



After Colonel Montagu's discovery it was found that the Roseate Tern, which 

 had been mistaken in several of its resorts for the Common Tern, was breeding 

 on other places on the Scotch coasts*; in the Irish Channel, near Belfast; on 

 Foulney and Walney Islands, on the Lancashire sea board ; <jn the Scilly Isles, 

 and on the Fame Islands lying off the Northumberland coast. Most of these 

 stations are now deserted ; but as late as 1864, Mr. J. B. Harting found the 

 species on Walney, and in 1865, Mr. Howard Saunders observed a single pair 

 there. 



In the "Zoologist," however, of 1897 (p. 165), the interesting announcement 

 was made that the Roseate Tern was again a breeder in our islands. " Your 

 readers," writes Mr. Potter, " will be aware that eminent and leading ornithologists 

 have for some years been of opinion that the Roseate Tern only visited our coasts 

 as a casual summer migrant, and this has been so stated in all recent works on 

 British Birds .... However, for the past few years I have known of a colony 

 of these birds nesting annually in Britain ; but, of course, for obvious reasons I 

 mitst refrain from naming the precise locality. In 1895 I sent Mr. J. T. Proud, 

 of Bishop Auckland, specimens of their eggs, and informed that gentleman of the 

 whereabouts of the locality, and last year he visited the place, saw the birds and 

 obtained the eggs himself .... It is satisfactory to know that these rare birds 

 have selected a portion of our islands for rearing their young where they are not 

 likely to be much disturbed by man ; in fact, as can be supposed, it is far from 

 the path of the ordinary tourist or collector, and it is to be hoped that those 

 gentlemen, who are already aware of the habitat in question, will keep it secret 

 for the sake of the birds and British ornithology." The precise locality has not 

 been published beyond that it is in Wales. 



It is to be hoped this species may yet again breed in Norfolk and in the 

 Irish and Lancashire localities, where it was formerly in the habit of nesting. 



As to the rauge of this interesting bird outside the British Isles, Mr. Howard 

 Saunders, our greatest authority on the Gulls and Terns, thus sums up our 

 knowledge of its distribution in the " Ibis" for 1896 : — " It is a matter of common 

 knowledge," he writes, " that the Roseate Tern annually visits certain 



* The Culbin Sands, on the Moray Firth, have long been known to receive occasional visits from the 

 Roseate Tern. Mr. O. A. J. Lee saw seven pairs in that locality in May 18S7, and obtained fresh eggs of this 

 species (cf. Harvie-Brown and Buckley, "A Fauna of the Moray Firth," Vol. II., p. 308).— H. A.M. 



