112 JUNGLE FOLK 



In colouring, these superb birds show what endless 

 possibilities are open to the artist who confines himself 

 to black and white and their combinations. 



There is in the flight of terns a poetry of motion over 

 which no one with an eye for the beautiful can fail to 

 wax enthusiastic. The popular name for terns — sea- 

 swallows — is a tribute to their wing power. They are 

 all designed upon a common plan. Length and shm- 

 ness characterise every part of their anatomy, save the 

 legs, which are very short. Terns rarely walk ; nearly 

 all their movements are aerial. 



The terns that commonly frequent the rivers of 

 Upper India are of three species — the black-beUied tern 

 {Sterna melanogaster) , the Indian river tern (S. seena) 

 with its deeply forked tail, and the whiskered tern 

 (Hydrochelidon hyhrida), a study in pale grey. These, 

 when not resting on a sandbank, are dashing through 

 the air without effort, ever and anon dropping on to 

 the water to pick something from off the surface, or 

 plunging in after a fish. AlHed to the terns, and found 

 along with them, are the Indian skimmers {Rynchope 

 alhicollis), easily recognised by their larger size and 

 black wings. 



The passing of a black crow causes some of the terns 

 to desist from their piscatorial occupation, in order to 

 mob the intruder. This means that there are terns' 

 eggs or young ones in the vicinit}^ Many species of 

 birds betray the presence of their nests by displaying 

 unusual pugnacity at the breeding season. To discover 

 the eggs or young of the terns is not a difficult matter. 

 It is only necessary to land upon the nearest island 



