LARIDAE 



313 



One only of the smaller species allied to the last group has 

 blackish bill and feet, namely S. longvpennis} occurring from 

 Lake Baikal and Ceylon to Kamtschatka, Japan, and Xew Guinea. 

 Of the remainder the Common, Arctic, and Koseate Terns breed in 

 Britain, though the Koseate is decidedly scarce there. S.jluviatilis, 

 the Common Tern, occupying the coasts and inland waters of Europe, 

 temperate Asia, and temperate America chiefly on the eastern 

 side in the last case and migrating to South Africa, India, Ceylon, 

 and Brazil, has red feet, and red bill with horn-coloured tip, the 

 lower parts being vinaceous grey. S. macrura, the Arctic Tern, 

 freq^uenting the northern regions of Europe and America from 



Fig. 63. Common Teni. Sterna fluviatilis. 



lat. 82 to 50, and 42 K respectively, has the bill entirely 

 red, the metatarsus comparatively short, and the breast French 

 grey. The two or three brown-spotted eggs vary from olive to 

 green, and are frequently ruddier than those of the Common 

 Tern. >S'. dougaUi, the Eoseate Tern, differing in the nearly 

 black bill, the white tips to the inner webs of the primaries, 

 and the evanescent pink tinge on the under parts, is widely dis- 

 tributed from lat. 57 N. in the Atlantic to New Caledonia, but 

 is apparently wanting in the Eastern Pacific. Its cry is 

 peculiarly grating. S. alhigena, ranging from the Eed Sea to 

 the Malabar coast, is much darker, and has orange feet ; while 

 >S'. hiruncUnacea, extending from Brazil and Peru to the regions 

 south of Cape Horn, 8. vittata of St. Paul's, Amsterdam, Inacces- 

 sible, Tristan da Cunha, and Kerguelen Islands, and S. virgata 

 of Kerguelen Island and the Crozets are closely allied forms, of 

 ^ Mr. Barrett-Hamilton, however, tells the author that the feet are red in life. 



