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of tliG gun.* If one was shot others came and lioverod about it, 
as Terns come to a wounded comrade, and I several times walked 
to within live yards of them sitting on the sands at tlie Tees’ 
mouth. llesides the I’omatorhine Skuas several specimens of 
Ihilfon’s variety were shot. On the 11th three were obtained east 
of liodcar. On the 15th I obtained a pair. The same day other 
two were shot, and also one on the IGth, besides several others 
which wore seen Hying. AH these are adult bird.s. ^lany of these 
birds, chielly I’omatorhino, were driven inland and were seen 
about Middlcsborough farm and other jdaccs, and no doubt created 
a great sensation where they appeared. On the 15th a great many 
I’omatorhine Skuas were seen and seveml specimens sliot. On the 
IGth I did not see any, but on tlie 17th the gale frc.shcned and I 
saw several small llock.s, perliaps fifty in all, and two or three were 
shot; but since tlien I liavo not ob.servcd any, tlie wind having 
changed to west and brought finer weather.” 
Passing from the mouth of the 'J’ees to the Humber Hi.strict, 
Jkfr. Cordcaux, in a letter to ^[r. J. II. Gurney, jun., on the 2Gtli 
of October, speaks of having seen on the previous Friday, at a 
birdstufler’s in Louth, a lino old Poinatorhinc Skua and a 
llichardson’s, he also just missed seeing what, from the description, 
was probably an adult Ilull’on’s Skua, At the same time ho 
ascertained that numbers of Skuas had been recently exposed for 
sale at the fish shops in Louth. 
Ihe first intimation I received of the flight having reached the 
Norfolk coast was a letter from Lord Coke, dated October IGth, 
stating that on the previous day a peculiar kind of Gull had been 
shot at Ilolkham, which was scut for preservation to Mr. Cole, of 
Norwich. This jirovod to be one of the most adult specinicus of 
* This may have been owing either to the birds having been bred in high 
northern latitudes Avhere men and guns were alike strangers to them, or 
from exhaustion occasioned by the force of the gales, for Mr. E. T. Booth 
(‘ Field,’ November 29th, 1S79), though stating that lie had seen these birds 
‘‘ more numerous on the fishing grounds off the Scotcli coast when no letters 
to record capture appeared,” still expresses an opinion that they had met 
with bad weather in .some part of the North Pea, and adds, “several 
specimens I observed were tloating helplessly on the water, and I have now 
in confinement some immature birds which were caught when tooVeak to 
rise on the wing.” 
