336 



BIRDS. 



are still taken wholesale by at least one individual in Dundee, the 

 colony upon that side of Tay has increased to about the same number 

 as that on the near side of the Tay estuary. 



Sterna cantiaca, Gmel. Sandwich Tern. 



Fairly regular passing migi-ant in spring and autumn {]). 



Col. Drummond Hay told us a few pairs visited the tidal Tay 

 every summer. Though he had never found the nest, he expressed 

 himself as having " no doubt that they breed with us, having noticed 

 them hovering over the sands of Tents Muir along with Common, 

 Arctic (?), and Lesser Terns." But we have no positive e\'idence of 

 its having done so. 



A pair were shot at Tayport, 14th May 1887, by Mr. J. Nelson : 

 and these, male and female, are now in the collection of Mr. Marshall^ 

 of Stanley. 



The Sandwich Tern is considered as of doubtful occurrence on 

 the Forfarshire coast by Dr. Dewar, but, nevertheless, they do 

 occur at Broughty Ferry and sands of Barrie ; and there seems to be 

 a fair chance that they would breed there, were it not that they are 

 disturbed by the gun-fire of artillery practice just about the time of 

 their appearance in spring. (Would it not be possible to remedy 

 this T) Dr. Dewar, however, scarcely shares this opinion with me, as 

 he considers that the nesting localities of other species of Tern are 

 too far removed to be affected thereby. Mr. Towns mentions the 

 "rare appearance of this bird at Montrose Basin, among other items, 

 and also on the Johnshaven flats " (October 1901). 



On August 22, 1903, Mr. W. Evans saw a flock of about twenty 

 off Edenmouth. 



So far as I am aware, the Sandwich Tern appears with considerable 

 regularity along this part of the coasts of Fife and Forfar, but of its 

 breeding there I know nothing definite. 



Hydrochelidon nigra (Z.). Black Tern. 



Bare occasional visitant. 



Don enters it as "Common on the sands of Barrie.'"'" It is 

 difficult to accept the statement seriously ; but maybe it is worthy 

 of repetition here. Conditions of its nesting distribution then 

 were different, I believe, and in a chronological history such records 

 may or may not have truth or significance. 



In 1899 Mr. Xicol Simpson picked up one dead on the coast of St. 

 Cyrus in the spring of that year {Annals Scot. Nat. Hist., 1900, p. 20r. 



In 1904 Dr. Dewar marks it as a "rare visitor. ' 



