40 BRITISH) SEA) BIRDS. 
“British,” no less than five breed within the limits 
of our islands. The Terns are far more locally 
distributed than the Gulls. Many miles of coast 
may be traversed without one ever seeing a Tern. 
They are all migratory birds with us, visiting 
Britain in summer to breed, and retiring south 
again in autumn. It is only during the season of 
passage, therefore, that they are at all widely 
dispersed, for the remainder of their sojourn on our 
coasts is spent at or in the near vicinity of their 
breeding - stations. The five indigenous British 
species follow. 
SANDWICH TERN. 
This fine species—the Sterna cantiaca of Gmelin, 
and the S. savdvicensts of Latham—is not only the 
largest of the indigenous British Terns, but one of 
the rarest. It was formerly much more widely | 
dispersed along our coasts, but persecution has 
thinned its numbers, and the seaside holiday-maker 
has banished it from many of its old-time haunts. 
Special interest attaches to this bird, because it is 
one of the very few species that have been first 
made known to science from examples obtained in 
the British Islands. It was first discovered in 1784, 
at Sandwich, on the coast of Kent, and described 
by Latham three years later. Alas! no longer 
does this beautiful Tern breed in its early haunts 
on the Kentish coast; it has disappeared from 
there, as it has from many another locality, without 
