COMMON TERN". 31 



Hebden Bridge, and Barnsley, by the margins of reservoirs 

 and the course of canals. In Derbyshire one near Melbourne, 

 May the 25th., 1845. It has been met with near Oxford. 

 In Cambridgeshire it is found in the Isle of Ely during 

 the summer months. Some were shot at March, the 7th. 

 of May, 1850. The species is observed all along the south 

 coast; in Kent, most numerously, it is stated, about Win- 

 cheLsea, Dungeness, and Romney Marsh; Dorsetshire, Devon- 

 . shire, and Cornwall; so in Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Durham, 

 and Northumberland. 



It is common in Ireland; also in Scotland, in the Frith 

 of Forth, and along the coast, and has occurred in different 

 years in Dumfriesshire; likewise in the Hebrides. 



The Common Tern breeds near Skinburness, on Rockcliffe 

 Saltrnarsh, by Sol way Frith, and a few on Solway Moss. 

 Many on Foulney Island, on the Lancashire coast. Priest- 

 holm Isle, off the coast of Anglesea, is another nesting 

 place, a's also the Fern Islands, on the Northumbrian coast, 

 and the Isle of May in the Frith of Forth, the Frith of 

 Clyde, and also in the Orkneys. 



They frequent low coasts, the borders of lakes, and the 

 mouths of large rivers, and follow the course of the latter. 



These birds arrive variously in different parts of the country 

 in April, May, or June, and remain till the end of August, 

 or through the month of September, or to the beginning of 

 October. They migrate, it is said, by day, and travel slowly. 



All the varied movements of the Sea Swallow in flight are 

 performed with that striking ease and grace which is char- 

 acteristic of these birds, whether on a calm summer day 

 when the glassy surface of the sea shimmering in the sun 

 is broken only by the leaping of the shoals of fish over 

 which the Terns hover, or later on in the waning year when 

 *the winds their revels keep.' 



Their food consists of small sea-fish, and, in fresh water, 

 of minnows and any other small kinds. They sometimes 

 pursue the Sea Gulls, and make them drop what they had 

 caught for themselves, and then seize it before it reaches 

 the water. They also capture insects, running about in 

 pursuit of them on the ground. 



The Common Tern lays its eggs on sand, rocks, or shingle, 

 making little or no nest beyond scooping out a slight hollow: 

 what there is, is placed either by the sea-side or in marshes, 

 on islands, or by the sides of lakes and rivers. 



