PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 59 



examination of a large number of live chicks shows that they vary in the colora- 

 tion of the chin, most having black chins with a small white patch at the base of 

 the lower mandible, some no black. The black grows lighter with age, becoming 

 grey and then white (T. A. Coward, in litt.). The under parts are white, 

 [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. In the British Isles this species is widely distributed 

 where the coast furnishes suitable breeding ground, but in Scotland and the north 

 of England, as well as in Ireland, its range overlaps that of the Arctic-tern, which 

 outnumbers it in Northern Scotland. Both species are also found breeding on the 

 Irish coasts, but the common-tern is the more numerous species in the south of Great 

 Britain, though absent from some districts, such as the Devon and Somerset coasts. 

 As both the common and Arctic terns are somewhat capricious in their choice of 

 breeding-places, and are apt to shift their ground from year to year, it is difficult 

 to define their respective ranges accurately. In the Outer Hebrides the former 

 is by no means common, but has long been known to breed in the Orkneys, and 

 since 1901 has nested also in the Shetlands in some numbers. South of the Fames 

 on the east side of England, and Anglesey on the west, it practically replaces the 

 Arctic-tern altogether, though apparently both species formerly bred on the Scillies. 

 In Ireland it is less numerous than the Arctic-tern, and shows a greater tendency 

 to breed on fresh-water lakes. On the Continent its range extends over the coasts, 

 lakes, and larger rivers from the North Cape of Norway and the White Sea, south 

 to the Mediterranean, Black and Caspian Seas. It is also found in the Canaries and 

 Azores, and along the coast of North Africa, while in Asia it occurs in the Ob and 

 Yenesei valleys, and south to Transcaspia and Mesopotamia, but in Central Asia 

 and the Lena valley it is replaced by other forms. In North America it is plentiful 

 on the Atlantic side from Labrador south to Texas. The winter range in the Old 

 World extends over the Continent of Africa south to Cape Colony, and in Asia to 

 India, Ceylon, the Malay Peninsula, etc. ; while in America it has been recorded 

 exceptionally as far south as Bahia, Brazil, but generally reaches the northern States 

 of South America (Venezuela, Guiana, etc.). [F. c. R. j.] 



3. Migration. A summer visitor. The earliest arrivals on the Kentish 

 coast occur in the second week in April, and the birds continue passing northward 

 till the middle of May (cf. Ticehurst, Birds of Kent, p. 501). They were reported at 

 Blakeney, Norfolk, in 1910, on April 28 (cf. Zoologist, 1911, p. 174), and at Raven- 

 glass about April 25. They seldom appear on the Welsh coast until the last week 

 in April (cf. Forrest, Fauna of N. Wales, 1907, p. 374), and Ireland and Scotland 



