Counties can afford to an ornithologist— the great colony of Black-headed Gulls at their breeding-place at Scoulton Mere. The Terns are certainly becoming more numerous on the Suffolk coast. I was told that one day this year more than one hundred eggs were found on the Lighthouse Beach by a single man. They used also to breed at Thorpe ; I had an egg given me which was found there this year. A graphic and interesting account of the breeding habits of the Terns is to be found in Mr. N. F. Hele's 'Notes about Aldeburgh/ pp. 167-69.— Julian G. Tuck (St. Mary's, Cardiff, South Wales).
Early Appearance of the Jack Snipe.— On August 28th I shot a Jack Snipe on Gourock Moor. A friend, who has a moor in Argyleshire, told me that his party had bagged two or three Jack Snipes a few days earlier still. It would thus appear that a few of these small snipe arrive in Scotland as early as the latter end of August. On Dartmoor the 10th September was an average date for flushing the first Jack. On some salt marshes near Barnstaple I have seen Jack Snipes on September 3rd. The keeper on the Gourock Moor told me that he had seen a Jack Snipe all through the summer on the little bog from which I bagged one on the 28th August. On September 2nd, being again on the Gourock Moor, I shot a Ruff. At the beginning of last summer I received a very fine adult male Squacco Heron, which had been killed in North Devon ; and about the same time a nondescript goose was sent me, which was shot in a wild state near Barnstaple. This I forwarded to London, net being able to decide what it was ; and have since been informed by Mr. Dresser that it is a hybrid between the Muscovy Duck and common farm-yard Grey Goose. It is a very handsome bird. — Murray A. Mathew (Bishop's Lydeard).
[A Jack Snipe was shot in Cardiganshire by Mr. Willis Bund on the 26th August, an unusually early date for the appearance of this little bird.— Ed.]
Bernicle Geese at Ringwood. — From the beginning of March till near the end of April, a small flock of four or five of these birds was often seen upon various parts of the extensive heaths in this neighbourhood ; and although apparently shy of man's approach, yet on one or two occasious they evinced a desire to form an acquaintance with some tame geese at a farm on the borders of the heath, but I believe they never actually joined company with them, though sometimes — especially in the early morning — they would hover near the vicinity of their tame relations, at which the latter, by their manner and clangour, seemed highly indignant. Possibly had they been more agreeable the wild birds would have joined them. At the beginning of April, however, one of the number was picked up, almost dead, near one of the ponds upon the heath. It was in exceedingly poor condition as to flesh, but the plumage was clean and bright ; it seemed
