84 LOST AND VANISHING BIRDS 



the species frequented in such numbers years 

 ago, and it is not improbable that these may 

 be survivors of the old indigenous stock. They 

 should be protected and encouraged, in the forlorn 

 hope that the species may re-establish itself in this 

 country. The fens and low grounds of East 

 Anglia too long remained the happy hunting- 

 ground of the fowler and the egg-gatherer, who 

 have been permitted to destroy and take at any 

 and every season, with the inevitable result that 

 all true naturalists have now to deplore. In other 

 parts of the British Islands the Black Tern can 

 only be regarded as an accidental wanderer on 

 abnormal migration. Outside our limits this Tern 

 breeds as far north, as Esthonia, thence southwards 

 in the Baltic Provinces, Prussia, South Scandinavia, 

 Denmark, Holland, France, the Iberian Peninsula, 

 and eastwards through Central and Southern 

 Europe to the Caspian. South of the Mediterranean 

 it breeds in North Africa, excepting Egypt ; whilst 

 its Asiatic range includes South-western Siberia 

 and Turkestan, east to the Altai. In winter this 

 Tern is found as far south in Africa as the 

 northern portion of the intertropical realm. 



The Black Tern is a regular migrant to Western 

 Europe, reaching its breeding quarters in May. 



