542 LARID^. 



but on the low coasts and islands of the North Sea, from 

 Jutland to the Netherlands, it breeds in great abundance. 

 On migration it visits the coasts of France, and there are 

 probably some breeding-places in the north-west ; it is com- 

 mon in Spain on passage, and some remain to breed, as they 

 also do in Sardinia, and perhaps in Sicily. Further up the 

 Mediterranean it is comparatively rare, but it breeds plenti- 

 fully in the Black Sea, and on the Seal Islands in the Cas- 

 pian. Eastward it is found along the Arabian and Persian 

 coasts as far as Kurachee in Sind. It frequents the north 

 coast of Africa ; breeds in the Canaries, and goes down the 

 west coast in winter as far as Cape Colony. 



In America this Tern, which was formerly distinguished 

 there as Sterna acuflavida, is found in summer along the 

 Atlantic seaboard from New England to Honduras, where Mr. 

 Salvin found it breeding, and he also found it common on 

 both coasts of Guatemala. In winter it migrates southwards 

 to Brazil, the Editor having a specimen obtained at Baliia. 



The nests are frequently but little more than shallow holes 

 scratched in the sand among the sea-campion or other plants, 

 but on Walney Island and elsewhere, tolerably solid structures 

 of grass bents have been noticed. The eggs are usually 

 two in number, rarely three ; but in the large breeding- 

 colonies birds not unfrequently drop their eggs in one 

 another's nests, and the Editor once found three eggs — two 

 of the Sandwich, and one belonging to the Arctic or the 

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

 on the Wamseys, the principal colony of the Fame Islands. 

 In colour there is considerable variation, many of the eggs 

 being of a rich yellowish-stone ground, thickly scrolled and 

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

 but in others the ground-colour is creamy-white ; average 

 measurements 2 in. by 1*5 in. By the fishermen this 

 species is called, par excellence, ' the Tern,' all the other 

 species passing under the general name of ' Sea Swallows.' 

 Its habits strongly resemble those of its genus, and it 

 subsists upon similar kinds of fish, the sand-lance and young 

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



