4.94 LARID.E. 



Gulls are remarkable 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 sus- 

 tain their flight with great apparent ease to themselves; 

 swim buoyantly on the water, but never dive. Their food 

 consists principally of fish, obtained alive from the sur- 

 face, 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 species belonging to the first genus, or 

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

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



Several specimens of this fine large Tern, called the Cas- 

 pian Tern, have been killed within the few last 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. 



