BIRDS IN THE CALENDAR 



neighbours in every latitude ; and even in the 

 Antarctic one kind, closely related to our own, 

 makes havoc among the penguins, an episode 

 described by the late Dr. Wilson, one of the 

 heroes of the ill-fated Scott expedition. 



Far more pleasing to the eye are the grace- 

 ful little terns, or " sea-swallows," fairylike 

 creatures with red legs and bill, long pointed 

 wings and deeply forked tail, which skim 

 the surface of the sea or hawk over the 

 shallows of trout streams in search of dragon- 

 flies or small fish. It is not a very rare ex- 

 perience for the trout-fisherman to hook a 

 swallow which may happen to dash by at 

 the moment of casting ; but a. much more 

 unusual occurrence was that of a tern, on a 

 well-known pool of the Spey, actually mis- 

 taking a salmon-fly for a small fish and 

 swooping on it, only to get firmly hooked by 

 the bill. Fortunately for the too venturesome 

 tern the fisherman was a lover of birds, and 

 he managed with some difficulty to reel it in 

 gently, after which it was released none the 

 worse for its mistake. 



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