V LARIDAE an 
One only of the smaller species allied to the last group has 
blackish bill and feet, namely S. longipennis,’ occurring from 
Lake Baikal and Ceylon to Kamtschatka, Japan, and New Guinea. 
Of the remainder the Common, Arctic, and Roseate Terns breed in 
Britain, though the Roseate is decidedly scarce there. S. fluviatilis, 
the Common Tern, occupying the coasts and inland waters of Europe, 
temperate Asia, and temperate America—chiefly on the eastern 
side in the last case—and migrating to South Africa, India, Ceylon, 
and Brazil, has red feet, and red bill with horn-coloured tip, the 
lower parts being vinaceous grey. S. macrura, the Arctic Tern, 
frequenting the northern regions of Europe and America from 
Fic. 63.—Common Tern. Sterna fluviatilis. x4. 
4 
Jat. 82° to 50°, and 42° N. respectively, has the bill entirely 
red, the metatarsus comparatively short, and the breast French 
grey. The two or three brown-spotted eggs vary from olive to 
green, and are frequently ruddier than those of the Common 
Tern. S. dougalli, the Roseate Tern, differing in the nearly 
black bill, the white tips to the inner webs of the primaries, 
and the evanescent pink tinge on the under parts, is widely dis- 
tributed from lat. 57° N. in the Atlantic to New Caledonia, but 
is apparently wanting in the Eastern Pacific. Its cry 1s 
peculiarly grating. SS. albigena, ranging from the Red Sea to 
the Malabar coast, is much darker, and has orange feet ; while 
S. hirundinacea, extending from Brazil and Peru to the regions 
south of Cape Horn, 8. vittata of St. Paul’s, Amsterdam, Inacces- 
sible, Tristan da Cunha, and Kerguelen Islands, and S. virgata 
of Kerguelen Island and the Crozets are closely allied forms, of 
1 Mr. Barrett-Hamilton, however, tells the author that the feet are red in life. 
