1878 Birds. 



rarely occurred in the more western countries of the continent. Temminck, when first 

 publishing the species (1820), mentioned that M. de la Motte, of Abbeville, had on 

 one occasion seen several individuals, and killed three of them in a marsh on the coast 

 of Picardy, in France. But one individual — killed at the end of August, 1836, at 

 Lyme, in Dorsetshire — is noticed in Yarrell's ' British Birds ' as having been obtained 

 in England. Specimens of this bird in the British Museum are labelled * Hydroche- 

 lidon * hybrida, India ? Hardwicke bequest,' and * Cape Seas, Dr. Andrew Smith's 

 collection.' If, as quoted by Schlegel (Revue Crit. Ois. d'Eur. cxxxi.), this be S. hy- 

 brida of Pallas, that name has the advantage of priority." — Id. p. 170. 



Occurrence of Sterna velox in Ireland. — " In March last I had the opportunity of 

 examining, in Mr. R. Ball's possession in Dublin, a specimen of a tern, the species of 

 which I did not know. It was left at my friend's house early in the month of Janu- 

 ary, and evidently had been but recently skinned. Mr. Watters, jun., to whom the 

 specimen now belongs, and who has commenced forming a collection of native birds, 

 which comprises some of the rarest species, assured me that he saw it in a fresh state, 

 and that it was killed near Sutton — a place on the road between Dublin and Howth 

 — at the end of December, 1846 : two others of the same species were stated by the 

 shooter to have been in company with it. As the bird was unknown to me, I noted 

 down the following particulars of it, which are here given that others may have an 

 opportunity of forming their judgment upon the species : — 



in. lin. 

 Length, total (stuffed), to end of longest tail-feathers 20 3 



of bill above from forehead to point 2 6 



of bill from rictus to point 3 4 



of wing from carpus 13 9 



of tarsus, about 1 



of middle toe to base of nail Oil 



of nail itself, measured in a straight line, about 4 



Wing and longest tail-feathers about of equal length ; outer or longest tail-feathers 

 exceed the middle by three inches. Bill wholly yellowish horn-colour ; legs and toes 

 wholly black. Colour of entire plumage the same as that of the common tern (S. Hi. 

 rundo), but the back is rather of a darker shade than that of the latter when adult. 

 The black of the head does not reach within one-third of an inch of the bill : space 

 between the termination of the black plumage and the bill, pure white. The specimen 

 is evidently adult. 



" On visiting the collection of birds in the British Museum, where the utmost fa- 

 cility for reference and comparison has always been most kindly afforded me by George 

 R. Gray, Esq., I saw the same tern labelled ' Sterna velox, Ruppell, Red Sea.' It 

 was from this locality that Ruppell had the species which is figured in his ' Atlas,' pi. 

 13 (1826). To Prince Bonaparte it is not known to have occurred farther west in the 

 Mediterranean than Sicily, and so far only accidentally. The Sterna cristata described 

 by Swainson in his ' Birds of Western Africa,' p. 247, pi. 30, agrees in all details with 

 my notes of S. velox, except in the colour of the back, which is said to be almost as 

 white as the under parts. — Id. 



* Boie. 



