COMMON TERN. 505 



resemblance in the birds while on the wing at a distance 

 favouring the supposition. 



Although occasionally breeding on rocks or on banks of 

 shingle, forming a sea-beach, the Common Tern appears to 

 prefer building on the ground in marshes, or on small, low, 

 flat, sandy islands near the sea, and sometimes on the 

 margin of large lakes. They are known to follow the course 

 of rivers going far inland ; and Mr. Jesse, in his Gleanings, 

 mentions an instance of one being shot in Bushy Park, 

 others have been seen and shot high up on the Thames 

 more than forty miles above Gravesend. They possess 

 great powers of flight, are rapid and varied in their motions, 

 noisy and restless ; constantly on the wing over the water, 

 either amusing themselves or looking for small fish upon 

 which they subsist. They lay two or three eggs, and are 

 very careful both of them and their young, making many 

 signs of anger and distress when their nest is approached 

 too nearly. The eggs are of a yellowish stone colour, 

 blotched and spotted with ash-grey and dark red-brown ; 

 the length one inch eight lines by one inch two lines in 

 breadth. Like the other species of this genus the Common 

 Tern, which comes in May, leaves this country in Septem- 

 ber, and when about to take their departure, have been 

 seen, like other swallows not of the sea, to collect in small 

 flocks, and wait about as if desirous to increase their num- 

 bers before starting. 



Mr. Wm. Thompson says this species is widely distri- 

 buted in Ireland. It breeds in the Frith of Clyde, and 

 Mr. Heysham mentions that it breeds near the western 

 extremity of Rochcliff salt marsh, at no great distance from 

 the junction of the rivers Eden and the Esk in Solway 

 Frith, and a few pairs on Solway moss, and about these 

 localities Mr. Heysham has known this species remain till 



