TERN. NATATORES. STERNA. 463 
CASPIAN TERN. 
STerna casPra, Pall. 
Sterna Caspia, Pall. Nov. Com. Petrov. 14. 582. No. 52.—Gmel. Syst. 1 
603.—Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. 803. sp. 1.—Steph. Shaw’s Zool. 13. 145. 
Sterna Tschegrava, Nov. Com. Petrov. 14. 500. t. 132. 
Hirondelle-de-Mer 'T'schegrava, Temm. Man. d’Ornith. 2. 733. 
Grosse oder Caspische Meerschwalbe, Bechst. Naturg. Deut. 4. 675. 
Grosse schnabliger Meerschwalbe, Meyer, Vog. 2. Heft. 28. t. 6. 
Caspian Tern, Penn. Arct. Zool. 2. 526. B.—Id. Sup. p. 76.—Lath. Syn. 
350. 1.— Steph. Shaw’s Zool. 13. 145. 
TuE capture of two or three individuals of this species in Very rare 
the south-eastern parts of England, entitles it to rank in the “sitant 
list of our Fauna as a very rare visitant ; in consequence of 
which rarity its habits have been exposed to very little obser- 
vation, and the details of the various authors who notice it 
scarcely extend beyond a description of its plumage. I must 
therefore request the indulgence of my readers to a meagre 
and unsatisfactory account. This bird is one of the largest 
of its genus, some specimens measuring as much as twenty- 
two inches in length. In Europe it inhabits the coasts of the 
Baltic, the Caspian Sea, and the Archipelago. It also occurs 
in Africa, being met with at Senegal and the Cape of Good 
Hope ; and, according to Laruam, is known in India and 
in the Chinese seas, though under rather a different aspect, 
which renders it not improbable that the bird he has imagined 
to be a variety of the Caspian Tern, may actually be a dis- 
tinct species, since so many of them nearly resemble each 
other in plumage. The habits of the bird now before us are 
presumed to be similar to those of the other oceanic Terns ; 
and we are informed that it precipitates itself, like them, from 
a considerable height in the air upon its food, which consists — Food. 
of living fish. Mr Srepiens, in Shaw’s General Zoology, 
says that its manners rather resemble those of the Gulls, 
adding that its voice is like the noise made by a man in 
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