100 EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



THE CASPIAN TERN. 

 (Sterna caspia.) 



Plate 31, Fig. 2. 



The Caspian Tern appears in Great Britain as a rare straggler 

 on migration. In Europe it breeds on the shores of the Mediter- 

 ranean and Black Seas, on the Spanish coast, on the island of 

 Sytt, and in various localities in the basin of the Baltic. It fre- 

 quents the entire coasts of Africa, breeding in the deltas of the 

 Nile and the Zambesi. It also breeds on the islands in the 

 Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea, and in the salt lakes of Turke- 

 stan. It is also found in North America on both sides of the 

 Continent, from the Arctic circle to Florida on the east ; and to 

 California on the west. 



The nests are mere depressions in the sand, with occasionally a 

 little seaweed or dead grass placed round the edge. 



It is not known that the Caspian Tern ever lays more than 

 three eggs. They vary in ground-colour from bumsh-white to 

 huffish-brown ; the surface-markings, never very large, are brown, 

 and the underlying markings, always very conspicuous, are grey. 

 Occasionally most of the spots are round the large end of the egg, 

 but generally they are distributed over the whole surface. The 

 eggs vary in length from 2*7 to i2 - 4 inches, and in breadth from 

 1"8 to 1'7 inch. They resemble very closely in colour those of the 

 Gull-billed Tern, but are always much larger. 



THE SANDWICH TERN. 

 (Sterna cantiaca.) 



Plate 30, Figs. 1—3. 



The Sandwich Tern is a regular summer visitor to many parts 

 of the British Islands. It no longer breeds on the coast of Essex 

 or Kent, but it is still found in some numbers on the Fame 

 Islands off the Northumberland coast, and there is a small colony 

 on the coast of Cumberland. A few pairs breed on Walney Island 

 in Lancashire and on the Scilly Islands. The species must be 

 regarded as an Atlantic one, being found both on the shores of 

 the Palsearctic and Eastern Nearctic regions. 



The Sandwich Tern arrives at the Fame Islands about the 

 middle of April. The nests found by me were merely slight 



