808 HYDROCHELIDON STERNA 



Hob. Southern, South-western, and Central Europe ; a rare 

 straggler to North Germany and Britain ; Africa south to 

 the Cape in winter; temperate Asia east to China; Burma, 

 India, and Ceylon, passing south in winter through the Malay 

 Archipelago to Australia; has once been recorded from 

 Barbadoes. 



Frequents marshes and inland waters in preference to the 

 sea coasts, and in general habits resembles its allies. It feeds 

 on small fish, caterpillars, aquatic insects of various kinds, 

 leeches, and dragon-flies. It breeds in marshes, in tolerably 

 large colonies, building a somewhat large but clumsy nest of 

 aquatic plants, which is placed on the herbage on the surface of 

 the water, and lays 2 or 3 eggs, which vary in ground-colour 

 from greyish buff or stone-buff to pale greenish or greenish 

 grey, and are marked with purplish grey shell blotches, and 

 blackish brown surface spots and blotches ; in size they measure 

 About 1-52 by 112. 



STERNA, Linn., 1766. 



1113. ARCTIC TERN. 



STERNA MACRURA. 



Sterna macrura, Naum. Ms, 1819, p. 1847 ; id. x. p. 114, Taf. 253 ; 

 Gould, B. of Gt. Brit. v. pi. 72 ; Saunders, Cat. B. Br. Mus. xxv. p. 62 ; 

 id. Manual, p. 649 ; Lilford, vi. p. 20, pi. 9 ; S. paradisea, Briinn. 

 Orn. Bor. p. 46 (1764) ; Eidgway, p. 43 ; Tacz. F. 0. Sib. 0. p. 1008 ; 

 hirundo, Miiller, Zool. Dan. Prod. p. 170 (1774) ; Dresser, viii. 

 p. 255, pi. 579 ; S. arctica, Temm. Man. d'Orn. ii. p. 742 (1820) ; 

 Audub. B. Am. pi. 250 ; Gould, B. of E. v. pi. 419 ; Hewitson, ii. 

 p. 481, pi. cxxxiii. figs. 1, 2. 



Sterne pamdis, French ; Gaiwna, Portug. ; Gavina, Span. ; 

 Rondine di mare artica, Ital. ; Kilsten-Meerschwalbe, German ; 

 Kyst-Term, Dan.; Modncebbet-Terne, Norweg. ; Bodndbbad-Tarna, 

 Swed. ; Cerrik, Lapp. ; Lapintirra, Finn. ; Kraslika morsJcaya, 

 Russ. 



ad. (Scotland). Crown black ; upper parts delicate silver-grey ; 

 quills dark grey, the outer web ;of the first blackish ; secondaries tipped 

 with white ; tail white, the outer webs of the two longest feathers dark 

 grey ; chin, sides of face, under wing- and tail-coverts white ; rest of 

 under parts eil ver-grey;. ; bill and legs coral-red ; iris blackish brown. 

 Culmen T3, wing 10'4, tail 8'0, tarsus 0'55 inch. Sexes alike. In winter 

 the forehead and crown are mottled with white, and the under parts are 

 paler. 



