46 BRITISH SEA BIRDS. 



" British," no less than five breed within the limits 

 of our islands. The Terns are far more locally 

 distributed than the Gulls. Many miles of coast 

 may be traversed without one ever seeing a Tern. 

 They are all migratory birds with us, visiting 

 Britain in summer to breed, and retiring south 

 again in autumn. It is only during the season of 

 passage, therefore, that they are at all widely 

 dispersed, for the remainder of their sojourn on our 

 coasts is spent at or in the near vicinity of their 

 breeding - stations. The five indigenous British 

 species follow. 



SANDWICH TERN. 



This fine species the Sterna cantiaca of Gmelin, 

 and the S. sandvicensis of Latham is not only the 

 largest of the indigenous British Terns, but one of 

 the rarest. It was formerly much more widely 

 dispersed along our coasts, but persecution has 

 thinned its numbers, and the seaside holiday-maker 

 has banished it from many of its old-time haunts. 

 Special interest attaches to this bird, because it is 

 one of the very few species that have been first 

 made known to science from examples obtained in 

 the British Islands. It was first discovered in 1784, 

 at Sandwich, on the coast of Kent, and described 

 by Latham three years later. Alas! no longer 

 does this beautiful Tern breed in its early haunts 

 on the Kentish coast ; it has disappeared from 

 there, as it has from many another locality, without 



