GULL-BILLED TERN 169 



tern, despite its wide geographical range, which includes North 

 America south of the Arctic Circle, Europe up to latitude 6o\ Africa, 

 temperate and tropical Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, is by no 

 means an abundant species ; and only just over twenty examples 

 were recorded in the British Islands during the last century. Of these 

 latter, as might have been expected, the great majority occurred on 

 the eastern and southern coasts of England ; not one being recorded 

 from either Ireland or Scotland. The species, either singly or in 

 pairs, frequents alike the sea-coast or inland pieces of water, both salt 

 and fresh, where it may be easily recognised, when in search of prey, 

 by its habit of fl>'ing with the beak held downwards, as well as by 

 its loud and harsh cry. Fish and shrimps constitute its staple food. 

 Well-known breeding-places exist in the Caspian and Black Seas, on 

 the coasts of the Persian Gulf, and in Ceylon ; the one or two 

 eggs, which have a greyish - white ground - colour, being deposited 

 in hollows in the sand. In addition to its large size and blood-red 

 beak, which form its most distinctive characteristics, the Caspian tern 

 in its summer-dress may be recognised by the black head and neck, 

 with green reflections, and the delicate pearl-grey tints of the rest of 

 the upper-parts. In winter, on the other hand, the crown of the head 

 and neck change to white with black streaks. In immature birds the 

 fore part and crown of the head, together with the under-parts of the 

 body, are pure white, the back and neighbouring region is mottled with 

 ashy brown, and the beak and legs are dull brown in place of the 

 coral-red and deep black by which they are respectively characterised 

 in the adult. 



Gull-billed Tern '^^^'^ scientific name of the gull-billed tern is un- 

 ( Sterna anffliea) fortunately calculated to lead to the conclusion that 

 it is an indigenous British species, whereas it is in 

 reality only an occasional straggler to our islands, where something 

 just over a score represents the whole reported tale of its occurrences 

 during the nineteenth century. It was from one of these stragglers, 

 killed in Sussex about 181 3, that the species was recognised as 

 distinct, and accordingly named anglica. By some writers the gull- 

 billed tern is regarded as the representative of a distinct genus, under 

 the name of Geoclielidon ans[lica, on account of being in some degree 

 intermediate between the black tern and its kindred (collectively 

 known as the marsh-terns) on the one hand, and the typical or sea- 

 terns on the other. The webbing of the toes is, for example, some- 

 what less full than in the latter, and the tail relatively short, with its 



