WHISKERED TERN. 261 



(Gatcombe, ' Zoologist/ 1865, p. 9629). It is not known to have occurred 

 in Scotland. 



The Whiskered Tern is an inland species confined to the tropical and 

 semitropical regions of the Old World. Its principal breeding-places in 

 Europe are the Spanish swamps, the delta of the Rhone, and the marshes 

 of the Upper Danube in Hungary/ and of the Dnieper in South-west Russia. 

 Further north it is an accidental visitor to Northern France, Germany, and 

 Denmark. In North Africa it breeds more abundantly ; and small colonics 

 are to be found in Greece and Palestine. Further east it breeds on the 

 plains of the Caucasus, in Turkestan, Cashmere, and Northern India ; 

 Prjevalsky found it breeding in the valley of the Hoang-ho in South-east 

 Mongolia. Styan obtained it on the Yang-tsi-kiang in Central China, and 

 Swinhoe in Formosa. Thence it ranges through the Philippines and the 

 Malay archipelago to North-east Australia, where it breeds on the lagoons. 

 The European birds winter in Africa, as far south as Damara Land and 

 the Transvaal, where a few may remain to breed ; and the Turkestan birds 

 migrate in the cool season to India, as far south as Ceylon and Burma. 

 It is probable that it is only a summer visitor to the valley of the Hoang-ho. 

 An example is said to have been obtained in the West Indies. The 

 Whiskered Tern has no very near ally. 



The Whiskered Terns which breed in Europe cross the Mediterranean 

 during the last half of April. In Spain this species breeds in May, but in 

 North-west India in June and July. It is quite as gregarious as the other 

 Marsh-Terns, and breeds in colonies, sometimes in company with them. 

 Like its allies it frequents marshes and lakes and avoids the sea-shore, 

 spends most of its time on the wing hawking for insects, which are its 

 principal food, and makes a floating nest of aquatic plants. Its notes differ 

 little from those of its allies, but its flight is described as not quite so swift. 

 I shot a pair out of a small flock on one of the islands in the lagoon of 

 Missolonghi, but was unsuccessful in finding the colony, though the date 

 was the 27th of May. Canon Tristram found it breeding in Algeria, in 

 nests of the Eared Grebe which the young had left ; but in India Anderson 

 saw it building floating nests of its own, some of which were more than a 

 foot in diameter and four inches high. 



The eggs of the Whiskered Tern are two or three in number, and vary 

 in ground-colour from very pale greyish green to pale buff". They are 

 somewhat sparingly spotted and blotched with dark reddish and blackish 

 brown, and with underlying markings of pale brown and grey. The 

 markings are rarely, if ever, so large as those on the eggs of the Black Tern 

 (varying from the size of a pea to mere specks) , and are more evenly dis- 

 tributed over the surface of the shell. Sometimes the spots are lengthened 

 into short irregular streaks and scratches; whilst the underlving markino-s 

 are numerous and conspicuous. The eggs vary in length from 1 -65 to 1 '4 inch. 



