GULL-BILLED TERN. 533 



ovary iu this specimen contained a large bunch of eggs, 

 varying in size from swansbot downwards. 



It is not remarkable that this widely-distributed Tern 

 should occasionally visit England, seeing that it still breeds 

 in several localities on the coast and islands belonging to 

 Denmark, although not found to the north of that country. 

 To Germany, the Netherlands, and the north of France it 

 is an accidental visitor, but southwards it breeds in the 

 Camargue, and on the coast of Spain, especially on the 

 sandbanks between Cadiz and the Portuguese frontier. In 

 Central Europe, Italy, and the neighbouring islands of the 

 Mediterranean, it appears to be only a visitor on migration ; 

 but it breeds in Greece, Turkey, Southern Kussia, on the 

 Caspian, and on the salt lakes of Turkestan ; also in Asia 

 Minor, Lower Egypt, and along the coast and lagoons of 

 Northern Africa. It frequents the Upper Nile and the Ked 

 Sea, and breeds on several of the islands in the Persian Gulf; 

 also on the lakes of Kashmir ; it visits India during the cool 

 season in considerable numbers, and it occurs in Ceylon. 

 Its breeding range extends across the temperate portions of 

 Asia, as Prjevalsky found it breeding in the Hoang-ho valley 

 in the south of Mongolia; and Swinhoe obtained it in winter 

 dress at Amoy in China. Southwards it is found throughout 

 the Eastern Archipelago ;* and in Australia, breeding in the 

 inland lagoons, and ranging northw^ards through the Malay 

 region to Ceylon during the cool season, we meet with a 

 form which, like the southern race of the "Whiskered Tern 

 already mentioned, is slightly paler on the upper parts, and 

 which is the Sterna macrotarsa of Gould. 



In America this species, which was formerly distinguished 

 in the United States as Sterna aranca, Wilson, is found on 

 the temperate portions of the east coast, breeding as far as 

 Galveston in Texas, and ranging southwards to Cuba, Brazil, 

 and northern Patagonia. It probably breeds in Brazil, as 

 numerous examples obtained at Santa Catarina are in full 



* This species is the Sterna afinis of Horsfield (1820), found in Java, but 

 not of Riippell (182(]) ; the latter having applied the name to the Allied Tern, 

 S. media, Horsfield (1820). 



