at that it does not, at all events at present, remain to breed in the Islands, there being so few places suited to it, though it is possible that before the Braye du Valle was drained, and large salt marshes were in existence in that part of the Island, the Black Tern may have bred there.  I can, however, find no direct evidence of its having done so, and therefore can look upon it as nothing but an occasional autumnal straggler.

The Black Tern is not included in Professor Ansted’s list, and there is no specimen in the Museum.  These are all the Terns I have been able to prove as having occurred in the Channel Islands, though it seems to me highly probable that others occur—­as the Sandwich Tern, the Lesser Tern, and the Roseate Tern (especially if, as I have heard stated, it breeds in small numbers off the coast of Brittany).  Professor Ansted includes the Lesser Tern in his list, but that may have been a mistake, as my skin of a young Black Tern was sent to me for a Lesser Tern.

166.  KITTIWAKE. Rissa tridactyla, Linnaeus.  French, “Mouette tridactyle.”—­The Kittiwake is a regular and numerous autumn and winter visitant to all the Islands, sometimes remaining till late in the spring, which misled me when I made the statement in the ‘Zoologist’ for 1866 that it did breed in the Channel Islands; subsequent experience, however, has convinced me that the Kittiwake does not breed in any of the Islands.  Captain Hubback, however, informed me that a few were breeding on the rocks to the south of Alderney in 1878, but when Mr. Howard Saunders and I went with him to the spot on the 25th June, we found no Kittiwakes there, all those Captain Hubback had previously seen having probably departed to their breeding-stations before our visit, and after they had been seen by him some time in May.  Professor Ansted includes the Kittiwake in his list, but only marks it as occurring in Guernsey and Sark.  There are two specimens in the Museum, an adult bird and a young one in that state of plumage in which it is the Tarrock of Bewick and some of the older authors.

167.  HERRING GULL. Larus argentatus, Gmelin.  French, “Goeland argente,” “Goeland a manteau bleu.”—­The Herring Gull is very common, indeed the commonest Gull, and is resident in all the Islands throughout the year, breeding in nearly all of them in such places as are suited to it.  In Guernsey it breeds on the high cliffs, from the so-called Gull Cliff, near Pleinmont, to the Corbiere, the Gouffre, the Moye Point to Petit Bo in considerable numbers; from Petit Bo Bay to St. Martin’s Point much more sparingly.  In Sark it breeds in considerable numbers; on Little Sark on both sides of the Coupee, and on nearly all the west side; that towards Guernsey, especially about Harbour Goslin, a place called the Moye de Moutton near there, which is a most excellent place for watching the breeding operations of this Gull as well as of the Shags, as with a moderate climb on the rocks one