STERNA ANGLICA. 293 



On the Spanish side the Whiskered Tern arrives about the 

 middle of April, and is only seen near Gibraltar on migration. 

 Hovering over every swamp and wet spot, they soon pass on 

 to their breeding-haunts in the Laguna de la Janda and the 

 marisma, where, among rushes and sedges, they nest about the 

 middle of May in colonies. Like other Terns, they lay three 

 eggs ; of a pale green ground-colour, with variable markings of 

 blackish brown. 



I saw a large flock of these Terns on the sea near Cadiz on 

 the 18th of July. Verner visited a breeding-colony of these 

 birds at La Janda on the 7th of May, 1875, and found several 

 hundred nests floating on the top of the water ; they were simple 

 platforms of reeds and rushes, and were kept from drifting to 

 some extent by the young rushes growing up in the water. Only 

 two nests contained a single egg. Five days later over thirty 

 nests had eggs. In the interval between the visits a strong wind 

 had arisen and blown many of the Terns' nests along the water 

 till they were packed in a dense mass on the lee side of the 

 laguna. 



Forehead, crown, and nape black ; chin and sides of neck white ; belly 

 very dark brown, almost black; rest of plumage grey or white; under wing- 

 coverts white; bill dark red; legs vermilion. Length 11^ inches. 



329. Sterna ang-lica, Montagu. The Gull-billed Tern. 



Spanish. Cagalo (Arevalo). 



Strangely enough, no mention is made of this Tern in Favier's 

 MS.; but we found them in great numbers about the lakes of 

 Ras el Doura towards the end of April. As far as we could 

 ascertain from the Arabs, they said that these birds remained in 

 the neighbourhood and bred a little later on in the season. 

 Essentially a freshwater or marsh-frequenting species, I never 

 noticed the Gull-billed Tern on the sea-coast. Some of those 

 we shot had been feeding on green frogs ; their note, loud and 

 frequently repeated, is (as near as I can render it) Jcuh-wuJc, 

 kuh-wuk. I never noticed the present species about Gibraltar, 



