COMMON TERN. st 
as they are as scavengers, I feel that their place in Nature 
is to animate the barren wastes of the sea. How, when 
at sea, the presence of a single Gull changes the whole 
aspect of Nature! The great expanse of water, which 
before was oppressive in its dreary lifeleasness, is trans- 
formed by the white-winged Gulls into a scene of rare 
beauty. Every voyager, be he naturalist or not, admires 
their grace of form and motion. They seem born of the 
waves, and as much a part of the ocean as the foamy | 
whitecaps themselves, 
The beautiful Terns or Sea Swallows are even more 
graceful than the Gulls. They are slenderer birds, lighter 
Common Tern, "4 more active on the wing, with long, 
Sterna hirundo. forked tails and pointed bills. They 
Plate X. arrive from the South in May and re- 
main until September, nesting in colonies. 
Terns are littoral rather than pelagic, seldom being 
found far from the shore. Like the Gulls, they seem so 
in harmony with their surroundings that no coast view is 
perfect from which the Terns are missing. They add 
the requisite touch of life, and make still more impressive 
the thunder of the surf dashing over rocks or curling in 
long, combing waves on the beach. 
During recent years these birds have been killed in 
such numbers for millinery purposes that on the middle 
Atlantic coast the only survivors exist on three or four 
uninhabited islets. If one protests against the merciless 
destruction of these exquisite creatures the excuse is, 
“ Well, what good are they ?”—an answer betraying sucli 
an utter lack of appreciation of beauty that explanation 
seems hopeless. Bunt can we not learn, before it is toc 
late, that these birds are even more deserving of protec- 
tion than the works of art we guard so zealously ? 
