24 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



Wherever this species happens to stray, it can scarcely elude the notice of any 

 one accustomed to observe our more Common Terns, on account of its large size 

 (it is the largest species frequenting Britain), its short wings and its fine scarlet 

 bill. That it has not more frequently visited this country is somewhat remarkable, 

 for its distribution over the globe is very wide. Its northern-most breeding place 

 in the Eastern Hemisphere is in the islands of Sylt, in the Baltic Sea, in about 

 60 N. latitiide. It is met with in summer to the southward of this parallel through- 

 out Europe as far as the Mediterranean, on both sides of which its nests are 

 to be found, whence it extends down the coasts of Africa. In Asia it breeds 

 south of the above named parallel (but is absent from Japan), and is found along 

 the shores of the Gulf of Persia, on the Caspian Sea, and on the salt lakes of 

 Turkestan. Thence in winter it frequents rivers, jheels and tanks in India, but 

 without breeding, though strangely enough, it has been found nesting in Ceylon, 

 and has found its way to Australia and New Zealand, where it breeds also. In 

 the Western Continent it has been taken from near the arctic circle down its 

 eastern coasts as far south as Florida, yet on the western side it does not extend 

 beyond California. 



The male differs from the female only in being slightly smaller and in having 

 the bill of a paler red. Both have, therefore, in the breeding season, the head, 

 from a point in line with the nostrils, extending below the eyes and over the 

 crown to the nape of the neck, glossy greenish-black ; the mantle, the rump, the 

 upper tail-coverts, the wing-coverts, the tail (whose feathers are white-shafted and 

 have the outermost quills pointed and but slightly longer than the rest), and the 

 primaries (whose shafts are also white), when freshly moulted, pearl-grey; the 

 latter are later in the season, when worn and rubbed, darker grey ; the margins 

 of their inner webs and the entire web of the first quill slate-blue ; face beneath 

 the black hood and the entire under surface pure white ; the bill scarlet, the legs 

 and feet black. Total length 20 inches (more or less); wing i6J ; tail 6; tars s 

 I& inch, and the middle toe with its claw I T V 



The Caspian Tern prefers to breed in colonies not far from the sea ; but, 

 nevertheless, often frequents lakes and lagoons a long distance from the coast. 



The nest is a mere indentation in the ground, in which three eggs, sometimes 

 fewer but never more, are laid about the beginning of June or the end of May. 



The eggs, which are larger than those of the Gull-billed Tern, are of 

 a brownish-buff or stone-grey (often very pale) ground-colour, marked with 

 small brown or blackish segregated spots, and others abundant and under- 

 lying of a pale olive-brown colour. They vary in size from a little over or under 

 i\ inches in length, by a little more or less than if inch in diameter. 



