264 • BRITISH BIRDS. 



to breed there *. In North America it is found in the breeding-season on 

 the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to Mexico and the West Indies, 

 migrating- in winter to the east coast of South America, as far south as 

 Northern Patagonia, The only record of its occurrence on the Pacific 

 coast of America is in Guatemala, most probably that of a bird which had 

 wandered across the isthmus. 



The Gull-billed Tern is very fond of salt water, but is more partial to 

 the lagoons and deltas, where it is protected from heavy seas, than to out- 

 lying islands or the o]3en coast. It prefers salt lakes to freshwater lakes, 

 though it is often found on the latter, as "well as on large rivers ; but it 

 avoids the swamps and marshes, which are so attractive to the Black Tern 

 and its allies. The Gull-billed Tern arrives at its breeding-grounds in the 

 south of Europe about the middle of April, and has been known to have 

 eggs in Greece by the end of that month ; but in Denmark it breeds 

 nearly a month later. It leaves its northerly breeding-grounds early in 

 September. 



My first introduction to the Gull-billed Tern was in the middle of June 

 1872. Dr. Kriiper and I had just returned from an excursion into the 

 mountains of Asia Minor, and were stopping in Smyrna to narrate our 

 adventures to our mutual friend Guido von Gonzenbach. Our host 

 excited our curiosity by an account of his visit to a colony of Gull-billed 

 Terns and other sea-birds, and was kind enough to introduce us to the 

 sailor who had piloted him to it thirteen years previously. He was a 

 Greek, but nevertheless occasionally spoke the truth when it was made 

 worth his while, and ordered us to be ready to sail at ten o^clock that 

 •night. The evening was cloudy, and there was more wind than usual ; it 

 was very dark when we stepped off the quay into the caique, but we hoistsd 

 a sail, and were soon scudding before the wind in the gulf. For six miles 

 or so we had smooth water, with a stiff breeze, and soon reached the 

 straits. The boatmen peered anxiously into the darkness, and finally 

 decided that it was not safe to risk the caique in such a heavy sea, so we 

 dropped anchor near the south promontory under the shelter of the 

 Turkish barracks. It was too dark to see the building, but we watched 

 the two lighthouses on either coast, and freely criticized the carelessness 

 of the lighthousemen, who several times almost allowed their lights to go 

 out. We lay at anchor in this outlandish place for four hours, flip- 

 flopping on the restless waves. Our two boatmen were soon fast asleep ; 

 Kriiper and his Greek servant followed suit ; I alone was obliged to keep 

 lonely midnight watch, compelled by stern fate to pour out repeated liba- 



* Australian examples are sliglitly paler iu colour than tliose found elsewhere, aud may 

 prove to be subspecifically distinct, in which case tliey nui.st bear the name of Sterna 

 anglica viacrotarsa. 



