628 SANDWICH TERN. 



nests in large colonies. On migration it visits the shores of France^ 

 and there are probably some settlements in the north-west ; while 

 it is common in Spain on passage, where some remain to breed, 

 as they also do in Sardinia, and perhaps in Sicily. Further up 

 the ^Mediterranean it is comparatively rare, but it is plentiful by 

 the Black and Caspian Seas, and eastward it is found along the 

 Arabian and Persian coasts as far as Kurachee in Sind. It nests 

 in the Canaries, frequents the northern waters of Africa, and goes 

 down the west in winter as far as Cape Colony. In America this 

 Tern — formerly distinguished as Sterna aatflavida — inhabits the 

 Atlantic sea-board from New England southward to Honduras — 

 Mr. Salvin having found it breeding in the latter, and also noticed 

 it on both coasts of Guatemala ; while in winter it visits Brazil. 



The nests are frequently mere shallow holes scratched in the 

 sand among sea-campion or other plants, but on Walney Island and 

 elsewhere tolerably solid structures of bents have been noticed. 

 The eggs are usually 2, rarely 3 in number ; but in large colonies 

 birds not unfrequently lay in one another's nests, and I once found 

 two eggs of this species and one belonging to the Arctic or the 

 Common Tern in the same hollow of a mass of sea-tang on the 

 Fame Islands. Many are of a rich yellowish-stone colour, thickly 

 scrolled and spotted with ash-grey,- orange-brown and deep red- 

 brown, but in others the ground-col-our is creamy-white : average 

 measurements 2 in. by i'5 in. By fishermen this species is called, 

 par excellence, 'the Tern,' all other species passing under the general 

 name of ' Sea-Swallows &:c.' It subsists cliiefly upon fish, the sand- 

 lance and young gar-fish forming the principal supply. Its flight is 

 strong and rapid, the bird making a great advance at each stroke of 

 the pinions ; and, except when engaged in incubation, it is usually 

 on the wing, uttering at intervals a hoarse and grating cry, kirhitt, 

 kirhift, audible at a long distance. 



The adult in summer has the bill chiefly black, yellow at the tip ; 

 forehead, crown and elongated nuchal feathers black ; mantle pearl- 

 grey ; quills rather darker on the portion of the web next to the 

 white shaft, but pure white on the greater part of the inner web 

 down to the very tip ; rump and tail white ; throat and under parts 

 white, often suffused with a lovely salmon-pink ; legs and feet black. 

 By the end of August a great deal of the black on the forehead has 

 disappeared, but the nape is mottled throughout the winter. Length 

 16 in., wing 12 in. The young (in the background) has the head 

 barred with black and white ; the back, wing-coverts and tail-feathers 

 varied with angular lines of black. 



