LARID.K. 



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THE GULL-BILLEI) TERN. 



Sterna axglica, Montagu. 



This species was first made known by Montagu, from specimens 

 shot in Sussex, and in ignorance of its being a mere visitor to our 

 shores, he bestowed upon it the inappropriate name of ofiglica. 

 Since the date of his discovery examples have been obtained as far 

 north as Blackpool in Lancashire and the vicinity of Leeds in 'S'ork- 

 shire ; but Norfolk, where no fewer than eight have been taken, has 

 naturally proved the most attractive county to this migrant, while 

 there are records of one from Hunstanton in Norfolk, one from 

 Kent, three from Sussex, and one each from Christchurch in Hants, 

 Plymouth in Devon, Penzance in Cornwall, and Tresco in Scilly — 

 almost all of them in spring or summer. In Ireland an immature 

 bird was shot on Belfast Lough towards the end of September 1SS7. 



It is not remarkable that this widely-distributed Tern should 

 occasionally visit England, seeing that it annually repairs to the 

 Island of Sylt and a few spots on the west coast of Denmark. In 

 the Netherlands, Central Europe generally, and the north of France, 

 it is only of accidental occurrence, but it breeds at the mouth of 

 the Rhone, and abundantly along the coast of Spain, especially on 

 the sand-banks between Cadiz and the Portuguese frontier ; and, 

 though chiefly a migrant in Italy, it nests on the salt lagoons of 

 Greece, Asia Minor, and the Black and Caspian Seas. In similar 

 situations it is plentiful from Morocco to Egypt and the Red Sea ; 

 whilst in Asia it is found in summer as far north as the Hoang-ho 

 valley in INIongolia, and also breeds on the islands of the Persian 



