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Item obtained through the Inter Library Loan service via Ludlow Library, sponsored by the Shropshire Ornithological Society with grateful acknowledgements to both. For copyright reasons the Item cannot be used as direct scans of originals but these are available to individual researchers on request to Histo.

NOTE. This contribution represents the first know (at 20140602) ornithological contribution by Herbert E. Forrest, then aged eighteen.

One para. of 28 lines ... in full.

“It may interest some of the readers of SCIENCE-GOSSIP to hear that on the evening of May the 31st I saw eighteen seagulls flying over Shrewsbury, in the same direction as the wind which was blowing from the west so they must have travelled over forty miles, since leaving the sea. They flew so near and low that I could distinctly see that they were specimens of the common gull (Larus canus). I have frequently heard of solitary gulls being seen and sometimes shot, near here, but never such a large number as eighteen, and cannot imagine what could have induced them to fly so far inland. I may also mention that at the beginning of the present year a specimen of the very rare little gull (Larus minutus) was shot near Atcham bridge, Shrewsbury, while hovering over the river Tern, which joins the Severn at that point. And that a pair of common terns (Sterna hirunda) were shot some time ago by a farmer, as they were fishing at Berrington pool, Shrewsbury. About the same time a pair of grey phalaropes (Phalaropus lobatus) were shot on a farm near Hadnall, Salop, where they had been observed for several days running about the puddles, seeking for worms and slugs. I do not think they were ever seen swimming, although there was a duck-pong close by. H.E. Forrest.”

NOTE: This is an early writing by Herbert Forrest, aged 18 at the time of this article; it is the first known by him on this website. Forrest lived 1858 to 1942.