272 THE BIRDS ABOUT Us. 



brings them from the sea-coast to the river. In 

 migratorial movements they are found inland occa- 

 sionally, and two species are known to our larger 

 watercourses and the lakes. The name sea-swallow 

 is peculiarly fitting to these birds, as they are forever 

 in the air. They do not dip down and swim for a 

 while, but keep watch from above and plunge down, 

 straight as an arrow, into the water. Terns, because 

 they fly with their beaks pointed straight down, have 

 been likened to huge mosquitoes, which is hardly fair 

 to the birds, for they do not play any of the mean parts 

 that go to make up the insect's despicable existence. 



There are some fourteen or more terns found on 

 the sea-coast of North America, and they are pretty 

 well distributed, no one locality having more than a 

 fair share. They mostly feed on fish, are gregarious, 

 and when nesting prefer to do so in company with 

 others of their own kind, or with other and larger 

 birds. They utter sharp, shrill cries, and accompany 

 these with a threatening click of the bill when you 

 approach too near their nests, which, on the Jersey 

 coast, are on the ground, sometimes with a bit of 

 dead grass or sea- weed, but as often a mere bare 

 depression in the sand. I have sometimes wondered 

 how it was that the nests were not destroyed by 

 the winds, as I have found many on sandy beaches 

 where the sands were forever shifting, and seemed 

 to threaten the burial of both birds and eggs. 



The Common Tern, which is known by a long 

 series of names, as " Wilson's Tern," " Summer Gull," 

 and " Mackerel Gull," is found in Europe as well as 

 in this country, and wanders into the forbidding 



