BIRDS 409 



Heads Wood informed me this day that a pair of adult Black 

 Tern was shot on Talkin Tarn the first week in Jane 1848. The 

 eggs in the female were large, and it is possible they might 

 have bred there.' Thomas Armstrong recorded a few years 

 later that he had taken a clutch of the eggs of this species on 

 Solwa}' Flow in 1855. 1 This is all the evidence for supposing 

 that this marsh Tern has nested in the Lake district, though a 

 few adults appear in the neighbourhood of the English Solway. 

 They have been killed repeatedly in May and June upon the 

 Eden, and in one or two instances upon the Esk also. In 1888, 

 for example, seven Black Terns were observed upon the lower 

 reaches of the Eden by Mr. J. N. Eobinson, between May 7th 

 and May the 10th, on which latter day he was an unwilling 

 witness of the slaughter of three of the party, shot by a gunner 

 from the opposite side of the river. Mr. H. Miller informed 

 Mr. Mitchell that he had seen this Tern flying about More- 

 cambe Bay up to the end of May. The only bird that I have seen 

 killed on Morecambe Bay was immature. There can be no 

 doubt that the Black Tern visits us pretty frequently in autumn, 

 as in 1890, when Mr. Nicol shot one hawking flies over Skin- 

 burness marsh on September 24, a second was shot on West 

 Newton marsh on October 2d by a man named Storey (who shot a 

 young Black Tern in September 1891), while a third was brought 

 to George Dawson by some local gunner. Near Allonby, Mr. R. 

 Mann observed an adult Black Tern in 1885, as early as April 

 27th, while two old birds were observed on Eockliffe marsh 

 as late as the 20th of October, in 1884. The chief period, 

 however, of the occurrence of the Black Tern in the Lake 

 district extends from the second week of May until the middle 

 of June, at which season the species is more often observed 

 with us than in autumn. It appears to visit the Solway Firth 

 on migration almost every year, and though it has occurred all 

 along our sea-coast from Morecambe to Esk, it may fairly be 

 considered one of the rarer birds of Lakeland. I have at 

 present no notes of its occurrence in Westmorland. 

 1 Naturalist, vol. vii. p. 251. 



