410 NATATORES. 



on the sea, tidal, or river waters, to nestle upon places that 

 are drier, and to find its food more in the broad waters. It 

 was first noticed on the islands in the estuary of the Clyde, 

 which are near a long extent of sandy shores, and where the 

 number of small animals moved about by the tide, as well as 

 of the fry of different sorts of fishes, is known to be great. 

 On the continent, the same species is said to range on the 

 sandy shores of Norway, and along the southern shores of 

 the Baltic, and to breed upon the haqfs, or long banks of 

 sand and shingle, which are found near the mouths of all 

 the larger rivers that discharge their waters into that sea. 

 These are the situations to which the common tern is most 

 partial; and as, when the late Dr. Macdougall found this 

 species, he found it living in peace among vast numbers of 

 the common tern, there seems every reason to conclude that 

 the two may be found pretty generally together, though, as 

 has been often the case with similarly mannered birds, and 

 one species more numerous than the other, the rarer one has 

 been overlooked. 



Length about fifteen inches, wings short,, reaching to only 

 within two inches of the end of the tail ; feet orange ; bill 

 yellow at the base, black at the tip ; cap on the head and 

 nape black, upper part grey ; the under part white, and a 

 roseate tint on the neck, breast, and belly ; some of the 

 quills with the webs black or hoary, but all with the shafts 

 white. 



THE COMMON TERN (Sterna Mrundo). 



A. figure of this species, one-sixth of the lineal dimensions, 

 is given on the plate at page 392. The young birds have 

 the bill and feet whitish, with merely a slight blush of red ; 

 the chin dusky where it is pure white in the old ones, and 

 the plumage mottled with brown and ash. The birds gene- 

 rally do not breed at lofty elevations, but select in preference 



