CASPIAN TEEN. 21 



appearance on fresh-water lakes or rivers is consequently 

 very rare. They roost on the ground. They are very shy 

 birds, always on the look out, and difficult to be approached, 

 except when engaged with their nest and young, but sociable 

 among themselves. 



Like the Swallows, these, as all the other Terns, true to 

 their 'nom de guerre,' are incessantly on the wing, and 

 nothing can be more interesting than to watch them hawking 

 for their prey. 



They swim buoyantly on the water, but do not dive, 

 beyond the plash made in plunging from their stoop. 



They fly, for their size, in a peculiarly buoyant manner, 

 and hover over a quarry like a hawk, pouncing down and 

 catching it in an instant. They swim about occasionally, 

 and run with ease and swiftness. 



They .feed on fish, especially those of the herring tribe, 

 or any chance eatable that floats on or near the surface, 

 and even the young of other birds: the former they appear 

 to swallow head foremost. 



The note is only a harsh cry. 



The nest is a mere hollow scratched in the sand. 



The eggs are two or three in number, of a yellowish 

 stone or pale olive green colour, spotted with grey and 

 reddish brown or blackish brown. They are hatched in 

 about twenty days; soon run about, and are fed by the 

 parents with small fish. 'Although the birds use great 

 exertions to prevent an intruder from approaching the nest 

 and eggs, by flying over his head, and making a consider- 

 able npise, yet it has been remarked that when they are 

 once disturbed, they do not easily return to their nest, and 

 are said even not to revisit the same spot the following year 

 if they are fired at.' Several hundreds of pairs build 

 together. 



Male; length, one foot nine or ten inches; bill, vermilion 

 red, paler towards the tip; iris, dusky reddish brown; head 

 on the crown, neck on the back, and nape, velvet black, 

 the feathers elongated towards the last-named, and ended 

 in a rounded point. In winter, white, or with a few dark 

 feathers on the hind parts; the sides of the head below the 

 eyes are white; chin, throat, and breast, white; back, blue 

 grey. The expanse of the wings in this species is four feet 

 three inches and a half: they extend considerably beyond 

 the end of the tail. The first quill feather is the longest; 



