386 



LARID.E. 



belong about thirty- four species, of which the Terns and 

 Gulls are remarkable for the elegance of their forms ; the 

 great length of their wings ; the small comparative size of 

 their bodies, and the quantity of feathers with which they are 

 covered. They are incessantly on the wing, yet sustain their 

 flight with great apparent ease to themselves ; swim buoyant- 

 ly on the water, but never dive. Their food consists princi- 

 pally of fish, obtained alive from the surface, or animal mat- 

 ter left by the retiring tide, which is sought for by these 

 birds at the water's edge. Besides the reijular moult in 

 autumn, a partial change in their plumage takes place in 

 spring, soon after which they frequent rocks, sandy flats, or 

 marshes, for the purpose of incubation. All the species 

 belonging to the first genus, or the Terns, Sea-swallows, as 

 they are frequently called, are summer visiters to this coun- 

 try, and the north of Europe. 



Several specimens of this fine large Tern, called the Cas- 

 pian Tern, have been killed within the few last years on our 

 eastern coast, particularly in the counties of SuflPolk and Nor- 

 folk. Two early examples are those mentioned by the 

 Messrs. Paget, in their " Sketch of the Natural History of 

 Yarmouth and its neighbourhood," one of which was killed 

 in October, 1825 ; another was presented to the Norwich 

 Museum, by the Rev. G. Steward, of Caistor, near which 

 place it was shot. Three or four were seen at Aldborough, 

 in Suffolk, and one of them shot, which is now preserved in 

 the Museum of the Philosophical Society of Cambridge, as 

 mentioned by the Rev. L. Jenyns, in his IManual of British 

 Vertebrata. Mr. Heysham sent me notice of a Caspian 

 Tern shot in Norfolk in 1839, and I have received other 

 communications on this subject which might possibly refer to 

 some of those instances already mentioned, but enough has 

 been said to entitle this species to a place in our catalogues 

 of British Birds. 



