NOTES AND QVEBIES. 165 



surface are no evidence of date for bones just beneath the surface. I fancy 

 these three skeletons, and most of the others ploughed up formerly, and 

 found at intervals between Brandon and Thetford, belong to victims of the 

 Black Death in 1349. The severity of that plague in the eastern counties, 

 and especially in the Thetford neighbourhood, seems to account for the 

 crowded condition, various postures, and absence of ornament, metal, or 

 other possessions.-— Frank Norgate (Bury St. Edmunds). 



AVES. 



Breeding of the Roseate Tern in Britain. — I have pleasure in 

 reporting the fact that this elegant and most beautiful of our Sea-swallows, 

 Sterna dougalli, is not yet extinct as a British breeding species, and that it 

 still has a regular nesting haunt in the British Isles. Your readers 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 woiks on British birds. 

 Indeed, the late Mr. Henry Seebohm writes, "It is doubtful whether the 

 Roseate Tern nests in any part of the British Islands at the present time." 

 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 must 

 refrain from naming the precise locality. In 1895, 1 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 their eggs himself; and I understand he has had 

 the pleasure of supplying the British Museum with such specimens, and 

 has satisfied the British Museum authorities that this Tern is still a British- 

 breeding species. 



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 molested 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 gentle- 

 men who are already aware of the habitat in question will keep it secret for 

 the sake of the birds and British ornithology. I may also point out that 

 their eggs are readily distinguishable from those of other and closely allied 

 species. — E. G. Potter (14, Bootham Crescent, York). 



[In our last issue {ante, p. 130) Mr. Gurney does not seem to think it 

 improbable that these birds may nest again in Norfolk, as they once were 

 known to do not many years ago. Mr. Ussher, in the March number 

 of the ' Irish Naturalist,' writes : — " The Roseate Tern is recorded by 

 Thompson to have bred in Down, Dublin, and Wexford ; but at the present 

 day no breeding place of this species in Ireland is kuowu." — Ed.] 



Zool. 4th ser. vol. L, April, 1897. n 



