Me ee ee me- i) Fy 
PEE A PELE NS TEE IPES LA P I NE TORNI ANETE 
Psychology. 85 
Notes on FORSTER’S TERN,. Sterna forsteri Nutt.—In 
spending my summer vacation two years ago at Piney Point, Mary- 
land, some ninety miles from Washington, I had abundant oppor- 
tunity to study the movements of this beautiful bird. 
Their elegant appearance, whether flying gracefully over the 
water in search of their food, or floating jauntily on a drift log, or 
darting swifty from place to place, makes them very attractive. 
I started out one fine morning, on a collecting tramp, and the 
sun, which had risen clear and bright, gave evidence of a warm, 
sultry day; but the wind, shifting, scattered the clouds over the 
sky, and a dull, rather cool day followed. I continued my walk to 
the river; the receding tide had leit a sand bar high and dry 
some twenty feet from the shore, and on this I noticed a flock of 
Forster’s terns, which took flight as I approached. I fired, one 
dropping dead amid the shrill cries of his companions. As the 
water was very shallow I commenced to take off my shoes and 
stockings in order to wade out and secure my specimen ; but, to 
my astonishment, the whole flock renewed their cries vociferously 
and commenced to circle around me, and from me to the dead 
bird, as if they knew that I was responsible for their companion’s 
misfortune. 
As I commenced wading, the birds seemed to ascertain my 
object, and they, with one accord, began to fly higher and enlarge 
their circle, and, flying faster than the rest of the flock, the first 
six or eight separated themselves in single file, and each one 
while flying, with a strenuous effort, gave the dead bird a push 
with its feet; each individual of the flock pushed in rapid suc- 
cession, and soon would have had the specimen beyond my reach 
if a friendly boat had not come along and rescued it and dis- 
_ persed the flock 
For a whole flock of birds to act in perfect unison and 
With one impulse, to remove a bird in the quickest and most 
effective manner, is certainly a wonderful performance, which 
can hardly be credited to instinct (as it is scarcely to be sup 
that the affection for members of a flock would be as strong for 
a mate as for their young).—P. L. Jouy in Field and Forest. 
Washington. Vol. IÍ., No.2. August, 1876, p. 29. 
VARIATIONS or THE NORMAL KNEE-JERK.—The first and most 
extensive paper in the first issue of the American Journal of Psy- 
