268 BRITISH BIRDS. 



STERNA CASPIA. 

 CASPIAN TERN. 



(PLATE 47.) 



Sterna tschegrava, Lepech. Nov. Comm. Petrop. xiv. p. 500 (1770). 



Sterna caspia, Pall. Nov. Comm. Petrop. xiv. p. 582 (1769) ; et auctorum pluri- 



momm Naumann, Temminck, Degland fy Gerbe, Dresser, Saunders, &c. 

 Sterna caspica, Sparrm. Mus. Carls, ii. fasc. 3, no. 62 (1788). 

 Sterna megarhynchos, Meyer, Taschenb. ii. p. 457 (1810). 

 Thalasseus caspius (Pall.}, Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 563. 

 Hydroprogne caspia (Pall.}, Kaup, Natiirl. Syst. p. 91 (1829). 

 Sylochelidon caspia (Pall.}, Srehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 770 (1831). 

 Helopus caspius (Pall.}, Wagl Isis, 1832, p. 1224. 

 Thalassites melanotis, Swains. B. W. Afr. ii. p. 253 (1837). 

 Sylochelidon strenuus, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1846, p. 21. 

 Sylochelidon melanotis (Swains.}, Bonap. Compt. Rend. xlii. p. 772 (1856). 

 Sterna melanotis (Swains.}, Hartl. Orn. Westafr. p. 254 (1857). 



The Caspian Tern appears to have been unknown to Linnaeus or Brisson, 

 but at the date when the works of these ornithologists were published it is 

 probable that Messerschmidt had already discovered this handsome bird. 

 Three years after the publication of the twelfth edition of the great work of 

 Linnaeus it was described for the first time by Lepechin, a Russian traveller, 

 who adopted as a specific term the local name by which it was known to 

 the Russians living on the shores of the Caspian Sea, where it was first 

 discovered. 



It is not known to have occurred in Scotland or Ireland, and to England 

 it is a rare straggler on migration. The earliest record of its occurrence 

 is that of one killed at Yarmouth in October 1825, and of a second shot 

 about the same date near Caistor, in the same county (Paget and Hunt, 

 Nat. Hist. Yarmouth, p. 12). Since that date six examples have been 

 shot in that county and two or three others have been seen. Examples 

 have also been obtained on the coasts of Suffolk (Jenyns, Brit. Vert. 

 p. 265), in Hampshire (Gurney, 'Zoologist/ 1869, p. 1512), and in 

 Lincolnshire (Footit, ' Zoologist/ 1853, p. 3946). No one appears to have 

 taken the trouble to verify the alleged occurrence of this bird at Filey 

 (Clarke, Handb. Vert. Faun. Yorks. p. 80). 



The geographical range of the Caspian Tern, like that of the Gull- 

 billed Tern, extends round the world. In Europe the Caspian Tern breeds 

 on the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, on the Spanish coast, 

 on the island of Sylt, and in various localities in the basin of the Baltic. 

 It frequents the entire coasts of Africa, breeding in the deltas of the Nile 

 and the Zambesi. It also breeds on the islands in the Persian Gulf 



