292 STERNA HYBRIDA. 
~ 
§ 4387. Mive.—Lake Halloula, Algeria, 1 July, 1857. From 
Mr. Tristram, 1858. 
Taken by Captain Loche, and very certain. 
[Three of these were in Canon Tristram’s sale at Mr. Stevens’s, 9 February, 
1858, where they formed lots 258, 259, and 264. The remaining two were 
given by the Canon. In his Sale Catalogue he says that this bird “seems 
always to lay its eggs in the old nests of the Eared Grebe, which it slightly 
repairs, as soon as the original proprietors have left”’ ; and again, recounting his 
experience of Lake Halloula, he says (Ibis, 1860, pp. 164, 165): “TI was 
surprised to find the whole colony of Whiskered Tern (Sterna hybrida) 
breeding in the nests of the Eared Grebes above described,—and that, apparently, 
without having at all repaired the nests, which could have been only a few 
days evacuated by their constructors, as we saw hundreds of young Kared 
Grebes paddling about and diving in the open lake with their parents. My 
series of eggs of Sterna hybrida shews a decided tendency to pale green as the 
ground-colour, and a type clearly distinguishable from that of any other Tern, 
though somewhat approaching the character of the eggs of Sterna leucoptera, 
which, however, are much smaller, and only exceptionally of a greenish ground. 
The markings are rarely so large as in the eggs of the Common Tern.” 
Loche’s account of the breeding of this species (Explor. Scient. Algér., Ois. ii. 
p- 209) is in great part borrowed from Crespon’s, already quoted (§ 4385). ] 
[§ 4388. One.—* South Russia.” From Herr A. Heinke, of 
Kamuschin, through Dr. Albert Giinther, 1862. ] 
[§ 4389. Zveven—Southern Spain, 1863. From Lord 
Lilford. 
§ 43890. Four.—Spain, 1872. From Lord Lilford. 
Lord Lilford’s notes on the nidification and habits of this species in Spain, 
furnished to Mr. Dresser (B. Eur. viii. p. 319), state that “ We found this Tern 
breeding in great numbers in company with Sterna nigra on the small lakes of 
Santa Olaya, in the Coto de Donana, during the first fortnight of May 1872. 
The nests are merely a few scraps of weed pulled together and placed on the 
open water, with no attempt at concealment; in almost every instance the 
In one instance we found four eggs in a nest; but the usual complement is 
three.” Subsequently in the text in his ‘Coloured Figures of the Birds of the 
British Islands,’ Lord Lilford wrote (vi. pp. 5-7) :—“‘I became intimately 
acquainted with this bird in a certain wild district of Southern Spain, where 
we found it in great abundance nesting in company with the Black Tern and 
many other birds of various species, upon some small freshwater lakelets.... 
It was more than pleasant to lie amongst the rushes on the sandy banks of 
