CASPIAN TERN. 269 



and the Caspian Sea, and in the salt lakes of Turkestan. It is found in 

 various parts of India, and breeds in Ceylon. It is common in Burma 

 and China, but its breeding-places in those countries have not been dis- 

 covered. It is a resident in Australia and New Zealand. In America its 

 range appears to extend much further north than in the eastern hemi- 

 sphere, for it has occurred from Alaska to Labrador, and southwards to 

 California, North Mexico, and Florida. 



In tropical and subtropical America the Caspian Tern is replaced by a 

 smaller but distinct species, Sterna maxima, which frequently visits the 

 west coast of Africa as far north as Gibraltar. This species may be 

 distinguished by having the outer portion of the inner webs of the first 

 six primaries white. 



The Caspian Tern is almost cosmopolitan in its distribution, except that 

 it rarely wanders far from the sea-coasts, and seldom or never strays 

 into the Arctic regions. With such an immense range it is not to be 

 wondered at that its habits should be subject to some variation. In the 

 breeding-season it is a very gregarious bird, and is seldom seen far from 

 the coast, though it prefers to fish in the quiet lagoons rather than in the 

 open sea. Its flight is very powerful, though somewhat more heavy than 

 that of the smaller Terns, but it appears to live quite as. much in the air. 

 In India, Australia, and New Zealand it is represented as feeding singly 

 or in pairs ; but in the lagoons of the Black Sea I have always seen it in 

 flocks, frequently in the company of Cormorants. In many places it is 

 said to breed in isolated pairs, but there can be little doubt that it generally 

 breeds in colonies. In the lagoons near the delta of the Danube it breeds 

 in enormous numbers, though of late years its eggs have been so persistently 

 robbed by the Russian fishermen that it has almost deserted the best 

 known locality. When I visited Lake Since, where a large colony has 

 existed for the last fifty years, only a few pairs were breeding on the islands. 

 The colony on the Island of Sylt, off the coast of Denmark, consisted, ten 

 years ago, of about five-and-twenty pairs (Durnford, ' Ibis/ 1874, p. 401). 

 In 1819, when Naumann and Boie visited it, they estimated the number 

 at three hundred pairs, and were assured by the inhabitants that the birds 

 had formerly been much more numerous. The nests are exactly like those 

 of the Sandwich Tern mere depressions in the sand, with occasionally a 

 little seaweed or dead grass placed round the edge. At the nest the birds 

 are very noisy. The cries are loud and harsh ; if the bird is not very 

 alarmed they sound like Jcay-owk, but when it is excited the note is more 

 rapidly repeated and sounds like kowk. The Caspian Tern feeds almost 

 exclusively on fish, hovering over the water and dropping down on its prey 

 with a great splash ; but Naumann states that it is almost as great a robber 

 as the Gulls. He says that not only Brehm, but other ornithologists have 

 found the remains of eggs and young birds in its stomach. 



