COMMON TERN. 87 



as they are as scavengers, I feel that their place in Nature 

 is to animate the barren wastes of the sea. How, when 

 at sea, the presence of a single Gull changes the whole 

 aspect of Nature ! The great expanse of water, which 

 before was oppressive in its dreary lifelessness, is trans- 

 formed by the white-winged Gulls into a scene of rare 

 beauty. Every voyager, be he naturalist or not, admires 

 their grace of form and motion. They seem born of the 

 waves, and as much a part of the ocean as the foamy 

 whitecaps themselves. 



The beautiful Terns or Sea Swallows are even more 

 graceful than the Gulls. They are slenderer birds, lighter 

 Common Tern an< ^ more active on the wing, with long, 

 Sterna hirundo. forked tails and pointed bills. They 

 Plate x. arrive from the South in May and re- 



main until September, nesting in colonies. 



Terns are littoral rather than pelagic, seldom being 

 found far from the shore. Like the Gulls, they seem so 

 in harmon with their surroundings that no coast view is 

 perfect from which the Terns are missing. They add 

 the requisite touch of life, and make still more impressive 

 the thunder of the surf dashing over rocks or curling in 

 long, combing waves on the beach. 



During recent years these birds have been killed in 

 such numbers for millinery purposes that on the middle 

 Atlantic coast the only sun ivors exist on three or four 

 uninhabited islets. If one protests against the merciless 

 destruction of- these exquisite creatures the excuse is, 

 ""Well, what good are they '."— an answer betraying such 

 an utter la<-k of appreciation of beauty that explanation 

 seems hopeless. But can we not learn, before it is too 

 late, that these birds are even more deserving of protec- 

 tion than the works of art we guard so zealously \ 



