24 
SANDWICH TEHN. 
They breed on the Bass Rock, off the coast of Berwick; 
also in Kent, about Romney Marsh; in Essex, at the mouth 
of the Black water River; and in Northumberland, on the 
Fern Island and Coquet Island. 
They are exclusively birds of the sea, and only seen inland 
as chance stragglers. 
They arrive about the end of April, or towards the middle 
of May, and are gone again by the end of August or 
beginning of September. They migrate by night. 
‘As soon,’ says Selby, ‘as the young birds become tolerably 
fledged, but before they are altogether able to fly, they 
frequently take to the water, swimming off to the smaller 
rocks, where they continue to be fed by the parents, until 
capable of joining them in their fishing excursions.’ They 
are naturally shy birds, and rise altogether if approached, 
assembling in vast numbers, being sociable among themselves. 
They roost on the ground, near the water, gathering together 
for the purpose about sunset, but their voices are heard 
afterwards till far into the night, and again early in the 
morning, while trimming their feathers for the day. 
Its flight is rapid, each stroke of the pinions sending it 
quickly onwards. Ever on the wing, its whole deportment 
is elegant and graceful, and those who will ‘take the wings 
of the morning’ and go down to the sea to enjoy the sight 
of the ‘great deep,’—always the same and always different 
—and all the ‘wonders of the shore,’ will see nothing more 
worthy of notice—where ten thousand things are worthy of 
notice—than the ‘air and the grace’ of the Sea Swallow on 
the wing, as it now skims along backwards and forwards, 
now stoops on its game, and now soars aloft for a more dis¬ 
tant flight. 
They feed on fish—the sand-1 aunce, gar-fish, and others, 
darting down on such as come within ken, or sweeping up 
any that chance between the waves when running high. 
The note is a loud, hoarse, and grating cry or scream, 
likened to the syllables ‘pink,’ or ‘cree.’ 
These birds live together in large colonies, hundreds and 
even thousands of pairs crowding together in the same places, 
the esrgs in consequence being so close together that it is 
difficult to avoid treading on them. The situation chosen 
is a sandy spot, covered at the most with short and bare 
vegetation. If the nesting-place is threatened, the birds fly 
about in a cloud, or sweep or dash about an intruder. 
