C03IM0N TERN. 397 



Although occasionally breeding on rocks or on banks of 

 shingle, forniing a sea-beach, the Common Tern appears to 

 prefer building on the ground in marshes, or on small, low, 

 flat, sandy islands near the sea, and sometimes on the margin 

 of large lakes. They are known to follow the course of rivers 

 going far inland ; and Mr. Jesse, in his Gleanings, mentions 

 an instance of one being shot in Bushy Park, others have 

 been seen and shot high up on the Thames more than forty 

 miles above Gravesend. They possess great powers of flight, 

 are rapid and varied in their motions, noisy and restless ; 

 constantly on the wing over the water, either amusing them- 

 selves or looking for small fish upon which they subsist. 

 They lay two or three eggs, and are very careful both of 

 them and their young, making many signs of anger and dis- 

 tress when their nest is approached too nearly. The eggs 

 are of a yellowish stone colour, blotched and spotted with 

 ash-grey and dark red-brown ; the length one inch eight lines 

 by one inch two lines in breadth. Like the other species of 

 this genus the Common Tern, which comes in May, leaves 

 this country in September, and Avhen about to take their de- 

 parture, have been seen, like other swallows not of the sea, 

 to collect in small flocks, and wait about as if desirous to in- 

 crease their numbers before starting. 



Mr. Wm. Thompson says this species is widely distributed 

 in Ireland. It breeds in the Frith of Clyde, and Mr. Hey- 

 sham mentions that it breeds near the western extremity of 

 RochclifF salt marsh, at no great distance from the junction 

 of the rivers Eden and the Esk in Solway Frith, and a few 

 pairs on Solway moss, and about these localities Mr. Hey- 

 sham has known this species remain till the beginning of 

 October. Priestholm isle, off the coast of Anglesey, and the 

 Skerries are also visited. It is observed on the coasts of 

 Cornwall, Devonshire, and Dorsetshire. It is said to be 

 rather numerous about Winchelsca, Dungeness, and Romney 

 Marsh. I have obtained it at the mouth of the Thames. 



