WHISKERED TERN. 529 



the Philippines, and throughout the entire south-east of 

 Asia, and the islands of the Archipelago. On the lagoons of 

 Australia during the breeding-time, ranging to Celebes in 

 the cold season, a form occurs which in the winter plumage 

 is, like some other southern representatives, of a slightly 

 paler tint on the upper parts ; but in the breeding-dress 

 the Editor can find no difference between specimens from 

 Queensland and from Europe. 



In the British Museum there is a mounted specimen 

 marked as obtained at Barbadoes, and presented by Sir 

 Robert H. Schomburgk, who was for some time Governor of 

 that West-Indian colony ; but he does not include it in his 

 list of birds of that island, nor is there any record of the 

 occurrence of this species in America. 



The Whiskered Tern breeds in colonies, sometimes in com- 

 pany with the Black Tern. Canon Tristram found that on 

 the large lakes in Algeria the eggs were deposited in the 

 nests of the Eared Grebes, without any repairs to the nests 

 which had just been vacated by the young Grebes. More 

 frequently the nests are composed of tangled weed pulled 

 together on the surface of the water ; and the late Mr. A. 

 Anderson, in an interesting account of the nidification of this 

 species in Oudh (Ibis, 1872, p. 82), states that some of the 

 nests he measured ranged from 3^ to 4 feet in circum- 

 ference, and -ere about 4 inches thick. They were com- 

 posed entirely of aquatic plants (some of them 2 feet long), 

 and so interwoven with the growing creepers that it was 

 impossible to remove them without cutting at the foundation 

 of the structure. The eggs, three in number, are usually of 

 a pale green ground-colour — sometimes stone-grey — spotted 

 and blotched with brownish-black and bluish-grey ; they 

 measure about 1"55 by 1*15 in. In Europe incubation com- 

 mences in May, but in India it appears to take place in July. 



The food of the Whiskered Tern consists of aquatic insects, 

 dragon-flies, leeches, caterpillars, grasshoppers, small newts, 

 fishes, and frogs. The flight is graceful and buoyant, though 

 not swift, but when tired it seldom settles on the water, 

 preferring to alight on fences, stakes, or beds of reeds, or 



VOL. III. 3 Y 



