THE TERN. | 279 
Like the land swallows, these sea birds arrive on our coasts in the 
spring. They disperse themselves over our lakes and large ponds, 
where they feed on any animal substances they meet with—either 
fresh or putrefied—fish, molluscs, or insects. Montagu says they 
are found in great abundance on the Sussex and Kentish coasts, 
particularly about Winchelsea, and in the Romney Marshes towards 
Dungeness. Mr. Selby found them breeding in the Solway and in 
the Firth of Clyde. McGillivray met with them in great numbers in 
South Uist and Long Island; and his correspondents, Messrs. Bailie 
Fig. ro1.—The Tern. 
and Heddle, noted their annual arrival in the Orkneys in May. 
“They arrive in straggling flocks in the beginning of May,” says 
McGillivray, “and soon betake themselves to their breeding-places, 
which are sandy tracts, gravelly or pebbly ridges, rocky ground, some- 
times low shelving rocks on the sea-shore, their nests being bits of 
grass or fragments of sea-weed, placed in a mere depression. In 
stormy weather they fly less, sometimes sheltering themselves upon 
the shore. They go to roost very late in the evening ; for long after 
sunset they are still to be seen seeking their sustenance.” 
Terns at their breeding-time always assemble in flocks on the 
sea-coast, on the margins of lakes, marshes, or wooded lands near 
