GULLS TERNS. 



261 



and snipes, with which the Gulls possess many anatomical characters in 

 common, though they differ from the plovers and their allies in having 

 webbed feet. The Laridce, or true gulls, differ from the 



skuas in having no " cere ' J on the bill, which is a feature The Gulls 



in the latter family. The cere is a wax-like bare space at Order 



the base ot the bill, a common characteristic of Hawks and Lariformes. 

 Parrots, but rare in every other order of birds, and it is 

 decidedly interesting that it should reappear in a family of gulls, especially 

 as it is combined with a decidedly rapacious disposition in the skuas. 



The family Laridce is divided by Mr. Howard Saunders into three sub- 

 families: the terns, or sea-swallows (Sternince) ; the skimners (Rhynchopince) ; 

 and the gulls (Larince). 



The sea-swallows are found all over the world, from the high north to the 

 extreme south. They are mostly marine, but many of them are birds of the 

 marshes, especially during the nest- 

 ing season, while others frequent 

 rivers and inland lakes. It is, 

 however, on the sea that these 

 graceful birds are generally seen 

 to the greatest advantage, as they 

 hover over the water, or glide along 

 above its surface, occasionally drop- 

 ping down to capture some small 

 fish or other prey. They often 

 follow shoals of small fry, and we 

 remember seeing a flock of large 

 terns in the Red Sea, evidently 

 engaged in decimating a shoal of fig. 26. ARCTIC TERN (Sterna mqcrtfra). 



fish on the surface of the water, 



and keeping up such a cackling all the time that they could be heard at least 

 a mile off. 



In the British Islands we have thirteen different kinds of terns, five of 

 which breed with us, the best known being the common tern (Sterna flumatilis), 

 the arctic tern (S. macrura), and the lesser tern (S. minuta). The sandwich 

 tern (S. cantiaca) now only nests in a few localities ; and a few pairs of the 

 beautiful roseate tern (S. dougalli) are believed to still breed in one or two 

 places off our coasts. Among the visitors to the British Islands are the 

 three species of marsh tern, belonging to the genus Hydrochelidon, which 

 have only moderately forked tails, the outer feather or " streamer " not 

 being prolonged, as in most of the terns. The black tern (H. nigra) is the 

 commonest of the three species which visit England, the white-winged black 

 tern and the whiskered tern bein** of very rare occurrence. These marsh 

 terns nest in swamps and marshes throughout temperate Europe, Asia, and 

 North America, and they are plentiful in the marismas of Southern Spain 

 and the Danube. The nests are made of weeds, and are placed on tussocks, 

 or on floating vegetation. 



The largest of the terns is the Caspian tern (Hydroprogne caspia), a large 

 red-billed species, which measures nearly two feet in length, and is found 

 over the greater part of the globe. The common and Arctic terns are species 

 which breed in colonies on many parts of the British coasts, laying their 

 eggs on the shingle, and making scarcely any attempt at a nest. The eggs 

 have a great resemblance to those of some of the plovers, and, like the latter 



