CASPIAN TERN. 269 



and the Caspian Sea, and in the salt lakes of Turkestan. It is found in 

 various parts o£ India, and breeds in Ceylon. It is common in Burma 

 and China, but its breeding-places in those countries have not been dis- 

 covered. It is a resident in Australia and New Zealand. In America its 

 range appears to extend much further north than in the eastern hemi- 

 sphere, for it has occurred from Alaska to Labrador, and southwards to 

 California, North Mexico, and Florida. 



In tropical and subtropical America the Caspian Tern is replaced by a 

 smaller but distinct species. Sterna maxima, which frequently visits the 

 west coast of Africa as far north as Gibraltar. This species may be 

 distinguished by having the outer portion of the inner webs of the first 

 six primaries white. 



The Caspian Tern is almost cosmopolitan in its distribution, except that 



it rarely wanders far from the sea-coasts, and seldom or never strays 



into the Arctic regions. With such an immense range it is not to be 



wondered at that its habits should be subject to some variation. In the 



breeding-season it is a very gregarious bird, and is seldom seen far from 



the coast, though it prefers to fish in the quiet lagoons rather than in the 



open sea. Its flight is very powerful, though somewhat more heavy than 



that of the smaller Terns, but it appears to live quite as much in the air. 



In India, Australia, and New Zealand it is represented as feeding singly 



or in pairs ; but in the lagoons of the Black Sea I have always seen it in 



flocks, frequeutly in the company of Cormorants. In many places it is 



said to breed in isolated pairs, but there can be little doubt that it generally 



breeds in colonies. In the lagoons near the delta of the Danube it breeds 



in enormous numbers, though of late years its eggs have been so persistently 



robbed by the Russian fishermen that it has almost deserted the best 



known locality. When I visited Lake Sinoe, where a large colony has 



existed for the last fifty years, only a few pairs were breeding on the islands. 



The colony on the Island of Sylt, off the coast of Denmark, consisted, ten 



years ago, of about five-and-twenty pairs (Duruford, ' Ibis,^ 1874, p. 401). 



In 1819, when Naumann and Boie visited it, they estimated the number 



at three hundred pairs, and were assured by the inhabitants that the bnds 



had formerly been much more numerous. The nests are exactly like those 



of the Sandwich Tern — mere depressions in the sand, with occasionally a 



little seaweed or dead grass placed round the edge. At the nest the birds 



are very noisy. The cries are loud and harsh ; if the bird is not very 



alarmed they sound like kay-owk, but when it is excited the note is more 



rapidly repeated and sounds like koivk. The Caspian Tern feeds almost 



exclusively on fish, hovering over the water and dropping down on its prey 



with a great splash ; but Naumann states that it is almost as great a robber 



as the Gulls. He says that not only Brehm, but other ornithologists have 



found the remains of eggs and young birds in its stomach. 



