752 
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 
XXIV. 
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 
Occurrence of the Sooty Tern in Suffolk. — The Sooty 
Tern ( Sterna fuliginosa) which I have the pleasure of exhibiting 
this evening was found on Santon Downham Heath, in the early 
part of April, 1900, by Mr. J. Nunn, of Little Lodge Farm, Santon 
Downham. He was rabbiting with a companion when they saw 
the bird lying dead on some bracken about a quarter-of a-mile from 
Thetford Warren — which is in the administrative county of Norfolk 
— and half-a-mile from the Thetford to Brandon highway and the 
river Little Ouse. The weather was fine and the bird quite dry 
when picked up ; it was taken to Mr. F. J. Rix, Abbey Green, 
Thetford, to be stuffed, who found it very much decomposed 
and it must have been dead five or six days at least. It 
was in very poor condition, with nothing in the crop or 
bowels but dark, clayey moisture. There were no marks of shot 
or any wound upon the skin. When mounted the bird was 
returned to Mr. Nunn. 
In the early part of September, 1903, Mr. W. A. Dutt and 
I stayed a few days at Little Lodge Farm, as a centre for Neolithic 
flint implement hunting expeditions, and noticed the bird. 
Though certain that it was a rarity, we were unable accurately 
to identify it. I took a description, and on my return to 
Norwich had little difficulty in identifying it as a Sooty Tern. 
Only three specimens of this bird had previously been recorded 
for the British Isles, and three others for the whole continent of 
Europe. This is the first record either for Norfolk or Suffolk. 
Though fairly common in the southern hemisphere, it is very rare 
in the northern. Its nearest breeding stations are on the island of 
St. Helena and at the southern end of the Red Sea. The recorded 
British occurrences were at Tutbury, near Burton on-Trent in 1852 ; 
near Wallingford, Berkshire, in 1869; and near Bath in 1885. 
