GULL-BILT.ED TERN. 266 



not only had he shot his original specimen in Sussexj but 

 that he had known others killed ahout Rye, we might be 

 entitled to infer that the Gull-billed Tern may have in those 

 days bred on our shores ; but perhaps it might be safer not 

 so to Ao, even though we might be tempted to adopt the 

 contrary belief, from an assertion of the late Mr, Rodd 

 ('Birds of Cornwall/ p. 166) that a private collection at 

 Penzance contains a bird of this species, presented by Mr. 

 Rice of South Hill, together with a portion of an egg which 

 dropped when he shot the bird near Brighton. I find in my 

 own notes that in the first week of May, 1855, a very perfect 

 specimen, in full summer plumage, was shot halfway between 

 Shorehatn and Brighton. On examining this example I 

 found that the head was not jet-black, as described by Yarrell, 

 but glossed" with the same green colour which pervades the 

 plumage of the Crested Cormorant. This specimen was 

 preserved by Mr. Pratt, of Brighton. Mr. Knox records (0. 

 R. p. 353) that he has a specimen killed at Rye, and there is 

 another in the Chichester Museum which was obtained at 

 Selsey on March 31st, 1852. Mr. Yarrell (B. B. vol. iii. 

 p. 534) says that the Gull-billed Tern breeds on islands or 

 sand-bants in lagoons, the nests being merely slight hollows, 

 with, at times, a few bits of sea- weed or dry grass for a lining, 

 and that its food consists of frogs, crabs, and fish ; that it 

 feeds also on grasshoppers and beetles, which it captures on 

 the wing, and that the flight is very graceful, though not very 

 rapid. It is partial to lakes of fresh or brackish water, and 

 forms a natural link between the Marsh Terns and those 

 which frequent the coast. A Gull-billed Tern was shot out 

 of a party of three, near Portslade, and was preserved by Mr. 

 Pratt, of Brighton, June 27, 1855. 



