Common Tern. 525 



graceful and pleasing ; and as the distances they traverse are 

 very great, they are frequently seen far inland, so that we are well 

 acquainted with many of them in this county, to which an excur- 

 sion from the southern coast is a mere morning's amusement. 



220. COMMON TERN (Sterna hirundo). 



The ' Sea Swallows/ as all the species which compose this 

 genus are commonly called, represent the fissirostral tribe of the 

 Insessores, and are of light and elegant shape, with small slim 

 bodies, but with wings of prodigious length and deeply forked 

 tails, the latter being a characteristic feature shared in common 

 by all birds of extraordinary powers of flight ; and when they 

 dash down with unerring aim on some luckless fish swimming 

 near the surface, it is with very great velocity and amazing 

 power. As they shoot over the waves or skim through the air, 

 and occasionally dip into the water, they bear a close resemblance 

 in general appearance to the real Swallows, whose arrival we 

 hail with such joy every spring. But in reality they have no 

 connection whatever with the Hirundinidce, for in anatomical 

 structure and habits they are true water-birds, and all their food 

 is derived from the sea or from freshwater rivers and lakes, from 

 which they are never long absent, and on whose shores they 

 make their nests. They are said to be very bold in driving away 

 any who trespass within the vicinity of their breeding haunts, 

 even attacking the intruder, and having been known to strike 

 his hat in their indignation and alarm. St. John remarks 

 farther, that though they hover about the place where the nests 

 are placed to drive away strangers, they do not care to sit upon 

 their eggs during fine weather in the daytime. Their beaks are 

 long and straight and sharp- pointed, and their legs are short 

 and their feet small. By many modern authors this species is 

 called fluviatilis, from its habit of ascending rivers to a con- 

 siderable distance, and sometimes visiting inland lakes far 

 removed from the sea ; but when its powers of flight are con- 

 sidered this will not seem surprising. In Sweden and Norway, 

 where it is the most common of all the Terns, it is distinguished 



