COMMON TERN. 



GA VI^E. 



549 



LARIDJ^,. 





Sterna fluviatilis, Xaumann.* 



THE COMMON TERN. 



Sterna hlrundo. 



The Common Tern is deservedly so named as regards tlie 

 greater part of the British Islands, although in the Shet- 

 lands it is superseded hy its congener the Arctic Tern. It 

 breeds, however, in the southern districts of the Orkneys ; 

 also in the Hebrides and in several localities on the west 

 coast and lochs of Scotland, from Sutherlandshire to the 

 Solway ; also along the cast coast, at Buddon-ness, Tay- 

 mouth, and many other places. Down to the Fame Islands 

 on the one side, and to the coast of Lancashire on the other, 



* Isis, 1819, p. 1847. It appears from the descriptioa given by Linnaeus of 

 his Sterna kirundo and the localities which it frequented, that he did not dis- 

 tingui.sh the Conin)On from the Arctic Tern. Naumann was the first to do this, 

 and hi.s names are therefore cmployeil for both species. 



