THE GULLS AND TEPNS. 195 



\Sterna media). Then there is the Gull-gilled Tern 

 (Sterna anglica), which has a black bill, and the 

 White-cheeked Tern (S. albigena), and the Roseate 

 Tern (S. dougallt), which is not mentioned in Jerdon 

 at all. These all, and some others, visit this coast in 

 large numbers during the cold season, and even 

 during the height of the monsoon they are seldom 

 altogether absent. The Roseate Terns breed on the 

 Vingorla Rocks during the monsoon, when they are 

 inaccessible to every enemy except man and almost 

 so to him. Among the rank grass which covers the 

 tops of the islands the birds lay their eggs, jostling 

 each other for room and killing each other's young 1 

 and behaving like the wild savages that they are. 

 Other species breed on islands in the Persian Gulf, or 

 along the Mekran coast, but I do not think any of 

 them migrate to such distant regions as the Gulls do. 



There are several ocean birds more or less nearly 

 related to the Gulls and Terns which roam over the 

 Arabian Sea and between Bombay and Aden, such as 

 the Booby and the Shearwater and the Frigate Bird 

 and the beautiful Tropic Bird. At times, in violent 

 storms, these may be wrecked on our shores, but they 

 do not belong to the Common Birds of Bombay. 



