528 LARID^E. 



the mouth of the river Liffey, Dublin Bay, by Mr. John Hill, 

 who shot the White-winged Black Tern already noticed, 

 and this specimen having passed into the collection of Mr. 

 T. W. Warren of Dublin, was recorded by Thompson (Ann. 

 Nat. Hist. xx. p. 170) in 1847 ; it is now in the Museum 

 of Science and Art, Dublin. A third, now in the collection 

 of Mr. J. H. Gurney, was shot on Hickling Broad, Norfolk, 

 on the 17th June, 1847. " It proved to be an adult female, 

 and contained ova in an advanced stage ; the largest being 

 apparently almost ready to receive the shell. In the stomach 

 were found about twenty of the larvae of the broad-bodied 

 dragon-fly " (Zool. p. 1820). A fourth, and immature 

 example of this Tern, was procured, as recorded by the late 

 Mr. Eodd (Zool. p. 3280), near Tresco Abbey, Scilly, at the 

 end of August, 1851. Lastly, Mr. J. Gatcombe mentions 

 (Zool. p. 9629) that one was picked up on the water by some 

 fishermen, alive but apparently exhausted, near Plymouth, in 

 May, 1865, and this specimen, which is in full breeding- 

 plumage, he has kindly presented to the Editor. 



The Whiskered Tern is generally distributed throughout 

 Southern Europe. It does not visit the Baltic, and it is a rare 

 straggler to Northern Germany, and to the northern provinces 

 of France, nor does it appear to migrate along the valley of 

 the Rhone, but it still breeds in the marshes of the Camargue. 

 In suitable situations in the Spanish Peninsula it breeds 

 abundantly ; in Italy it is only a visitor on migration ; but 

 in Greece, Turkey, and Southern Russia several nesting- 

 places are known. It also breeds sparingly in the marshes 

 of Poland and of Southern Germany ; and on the Black Sea 

 it is abundant. In North Africa, from Morocco to Egypt, 

 many breeding colonies are to be found ; and in the winter it 

 goes as far south as Damara Land and the Transvaal ; indeed, 

 it seems probable that it breeds near some of the elevated 

 lakes of that continent, as Andersson obtained it in full nup- 

 tial plumage on Lake Ngami in April. Its breeding-range 

 extends from Asia Minor, through Turkestan, to Mongolia 

 and China, but not to Siberia ; and it nests also in Kashmir 

 and Northern India. It occurs in Southern India, Ceylon, 



