498 LARIDJI. 



To this family, the Laridce, the last among British Birds, 

 many species belong, of which the Terns and Gulls are re- 

 markable for the elegance of their forms ; the great length 

 of their wings ; the small comparative size of their bodies, 

 and the quantity of feathers with which they are covered. 

 They are incessantly on. the wing, yet sustain their flight 

 with great apparent ease to themselves ; swim buoyantly 

 on the water, but never dive. Their food consists princi- 

 pally of fish, obtained alive from the surface, or animal 

 matter left by the retiring tide, which is sought for by 

 these birds at the water's edge. Besides the regular moult 

 in autumn, a partial change in their plumage takes place 

 in spring, soon after which they frequent rocks, sandy 

 flats, or marshes, for the purpose of incubation. All the 

 Terns, or Sea- swallows, as they are frequently called, are 

 summer visitors to this country, and the north of Europe. 



Several specimens of this fine large Tern, called the 

 Caspian Tern, have been killed of late years on our 

 eastern coast, particularly in the counties of Suffolk and 

 Norfolk. Two early examples are those mentioned by 

 the Messrs. Paget, in their Sketch of the Natural History 

 of Yarmouth and its neighbourhood, one of which was 

 killed in October, 1825; another was presented to the 

 Norwich Museum, by the Rev. G. Steward of Caistor, 

 near which place it was shot. Three or four were seen at 

 Aldborough, in Suffolk, and one of them shot, which is 

 now preserved in the Museum of the Philosophical Society 

 of Cambridge, as mentioned by the Rev. L. Jenyns, in his 

 Manual of British Vertebrata. Mr. Heysham sent me 

 notice of a Caspian Tern, shot in Norfolk in 1839, and I 

 have received other communications on this subject which 

 might possibly refer to some of those instances already 

 mentioned, but enough has been said to entitle this species 

 to a place in our catalogues of British Birds. 



