TERN. NATATORES. STERNA. 471 
mon species ; but has since been found to inhabit many other 
stations during the summer, both upon the eastern and 
western coasts of Scotland. Upon the Fern Islands, on the 
Northumbrian coast, I have also met with it plentifully for 
the last fifteen years; but here it had only been noticed for 
a year or two previous to that period as a distinct species, 
by the keeper of the Lighthouse, from whom I received the 
first intimation of the fact. According to TEmminck, the 
shores of Norway also afford it a summer retreat, and it has 
been found to breed, though in small numbers, upon the 
coast of Picardy in France. It is of light and elegant form, 
rather inferior in bulk to the Common Tern, though of 
greater length, from the extreme development of the outer 
tail-feathers, which in many specimens reach nearly three 
inches beyond the closed wings. Its bill is also more subu- 
late and not so deep as in the other, and entirely black, with 
the exception of the part immediately behind the nostrils, 
which is of a deep red. It is easily to be distinguished when 
on wing from all the other species, its flight being peculiarly 
buoyant, and sustained by a slower stroke of the pinions. 
The length of the tail is also characteristic, and its cry is 
different in expression, resembling the word crake, in a key Incuba- 
not unlike that of the Land Crake—Upon the Fern Islands #™ 
it breeds on the outskirts of the station occupied by the 
Arctic Tern (the prevailing species there); and its eggs 
much resemble those of that bird, but are a little larger, 
and with the ground-colour usually more inclining to cream- 
white or pale wood-brown. In habits it scarcely differs from — Food. 
its nearly allied congeners, preying on the same kinds of 
fish, which are obtained in a similar manner as they rise to- 
wards the surface of the water. Its arrival may be stated 
as at the same time with the Sandwich and Arctic Terns; 
and by the end of September nearly the whole of them will 
have departed for warmer latitudes. 
