SANDWICH TEKN 
STERNA CANTIACA. 
During the seasons of migration in spring and autumn this Tern is to he seen along the coast-line 
in many parts of tlie Britisli Islands. In Sussex, Kent, Norfolk, and along the shores of the Firth 
of Forth, I have repeatedly met with this species w'orking north in spring. On one occasion a party 
of five or six were recognized in June on the Dornoch Firth off Tain; though the birds remained 
fishing up and down the channels at low tide for a couple of days, they eventually disappeared, and I 
was unable to learn that any bred in the district. I often remarked that the birds seen so late in the 
season exhibited a dark marking on the shoulder of the iving, somewhat similar though less plainly 
defined than on the immature in autumn. It is probable that, like many other sea-fowl, this species 
does not attain maturity at the age of one year ; doubtless the stragglers are non-breeders, simply passing 
the summer in making a certain migratory movement towards the north and subsequently working back 
to their winter-quarters*. On the 2nd of July, 1879 (weather rough and frequent squalls of rain), a 
pair of Sandwich Terns were observed flying in an easterly direction along the beach at Shoreham. 
This is a somewhat unusual date for Terns in this locality, and in all probability the birds were 
immature, though the distance at which they were seen precluded all hopes of carefully examining 
their plumage. 
In autumn Sandwdeh Terns are to be observed fishing along almost every part of the eastern and 
southern coasts that I visited during the months of August, September, and October. Stormy weather 
appears to set these birds in motion ; during gales of wind in September and October 1874 they 
proved unusually abundant in the Firth of Forth, flocks numbering from ten or a dozen up to twenty 
or thirty being often in view flapping either east or west along the coast. As no breeding-stations 
w^re then tenanted in the Firth, it is probable that these birds had worked round the shore from 
the Fern Islands. I also noticed several small parties just off the parade at Penzance on the morning 
of the 8th of October, 1880, hovering over the broken water as the swell subsided after the terrific seas 
that had rolled into Mounts Bay at daybreak f. For a few days after the gale Terns, principally of this 
species, w^ere making their way along the coast towards the west, the last (a bird with an almost w'hite 
head, resolutely refusing to approach within range) that came under my notice that season being observed 
fishing off the harbour at Lamorna Cove on the 5th of November. On the 3rd of September, 1883 (a 
heavy gale from the south-west), numbers of Sandwich Terns were sheltering in Shoreham harbour, and 
* None of the adults procured as specimens during the breeding-season exhibited the dark markings on the shoulder. 
t So tremendous was the force of the seas rolling into the bay on that disastrous morning, that the breakers repeatedly dashed over 
the baths, a building of three stories standing on the parade, and burst into clouds of spray at least thirty feet over the roof. I watched 
five fishing-boats sailing in from the open sea for the harbour; four succeeded in making their way in, but the last, after passing the 
head of the south pier, was completely overwhelmed by a tremendous wave that broke over, and the whole crew of seven men were drowned. 
