Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/193

Rh surface are no evidence of date for bones just beneath the surface. I fancy these three skeletons, and most of the others ploughed up formerly, and found at intervals between Brandon and Thetford, belong to victims of the Black Death in 1349. The severity of that plague in the eastern counties, and especially in the Thetford neighbourhood, seems to account for the crowded condition, various postures, and absence of ornament, metal, or other possessions.— (Bury St. Edmunds).

Breeding of the Roseate Tern in Britain.—I have pleasure in reporting the fact that this elegant and most beautiful of our Sea-swallows, Sterna dougalli, is not yet extinct as a British breeding species, and that it still has a regular nesting haunt in the British Isles. Your readers will be aware that eminent and leading ornithologists have for some years been of opinion that the Roseate Tern only visited our coasts as a casual summer migrant, and this has been so stated in all recent works on British birds. Indeed, the late Mr. Henry Seebohm writes, "It is doubtful whether the Roseate Tern nests in any part of the British Islands at the present time." However, for the past few years I have known of a colony of these birds nesting annually in Britain; but of course, for obvious reasons, I must refrain from naming the precise locality. In 1895, I sent Mr. J.T. Proud, of Bishop Auckland, specimens of their eggs, and informed that gentleman of the whereabouts of the locality, and last year he visited the place, saw the birds, and obtained their eggs himself; and I understand he has had the pleasure of supplying the British Museum with such specimens, and has satisfied the British Museum authorities that this Tern is still a British-breeding species.

It is satisfactory to know that these rare birds have selected a portion of our islands for rearing their young where they are not likely to be much molested by man; in fact, as can be supposed, it is far from the path of the ordinary tourist or collector, and it is to be hoped that those gentlemen who are already aware of the habitat in question will keep it secret for the sake of the birds and British ornithology. I may also point out that their eggs are readily distinguishable from those of other and closely allied species.— (14, Bootham Crescent, York).

[In our last issue (ante, p. 130) Mr. Gurney does not seem to think it improbable that these birds may nest again in Norfolk, as they once were known to do not many years ago. Mr. Ussher, in the March number of the 'Irish Naturalist,' writes:—"The Roseate Tern is recorded by Thompson to have bred in Down, Dublin, and Wexford; but at the present day no breeding place of this species in Ireland is known."—] Zool. 4th ser. vol. I, April, 1897.