354 BIRDS OF TUNISIA 



STERNA ANGLICA, Montagu. 

 GULL-BILLED TERN. 



Sterna anglica, Mont. Orn. Diet. Supj^l- fig- (1813); Eoenig, J. f. 0. 



1888, p. 286 ; id. J. f. 0. 1893, p. 97 ; Whitaker, Ibis, 1895, p. 106. 

 Gelochelidon anglica, Malherbe, Cat. Bais. d'Ois. Alg. p. 22 (1846) ; 



Saunders, Cat. Birds Brit. Mhs. ssv, p. 25 ; Erlanger, J. f. 0. 1900, 



p. 73. 

 Gelochelidon meridionalis, Lochc, E.rpl. Sci. Alg. Ois. ii, p. 198 (1867). 



Description. — Adult male, spring, from Djerba, South Tunisia. 



Forehead, crown and nape jet-black, the feathers of the nape much 

 elongated ; upper plumage pearl-grey, becoming almost white on the 

 shoulders and tail ; primaries dark grey, lighter in the middle; underparts 

 white. 



Iris dark brown ; bill black ; feet dark brown. 



Total length 14 inches, wing 12-25, culmen 1-75, tarsus 1'25. 



Adult female similar to the male, but slightly smaller. 



In winter the forehead is white, and the crown and nape white, striped 

 with black. 



The Gull-billed Tern is common in Tunisia in spring and autumn, 

 and breeds in the Eegency. It may often be met with in inland 

 districts, as well as on the coast, and has been found even in the 

 middle of the desert. 



Loche states that it is abundant on the coasts and lakes of 

 Algeria, and that it breeds on Lake Fezzara. 



Canon Tristram records it from the Algerian Sahara, and found 

 it breeding at Zana. 



Colonel Irby met with it in great numbers about the lakes of 

 Eas Doura in Marocco towards the end of April, and gathered from 

 the Arabs that the species bred in that neighbourhood a little later 

 than that date. 



The range of the Gull-billed Tern extends throughout Southern 

 Europe and North Africa, eastward through Asia to China, and south- 

 ward to Australia. It appears to be a summer visitor to Denmark, 

 but can only be looked upon as a straggler throughout the greater 

 part of Northern and Central Europe. In America it nests along the 

 Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to Mexico and the West Indies, 

 and ranges as far south as Patagonia. Its only occurrence on the 



