WHISKERED TERN, 



HYDROCHELIDON HYBRID A {Pallas). 



Sterna hybrida, Pall. Zoogr. Rosso-As. ii. p. 338 (1811). 

 Sterna leucopareia, Naum. x. p. 168 ; Hewitson, ii. p. 483. 

 Hydrochelidon leucopareia, Macg. v. p. 663. 

 Hydrochelidon hybrida, Yarr. ed. 4, iii. p. 527 ; Dresser, viii. 

 p. 315. 



Hirondelle de mer moustac, French ; Golondrina de mar, 

 Charran, Spanish. 



This Marsh-Tern is a very rare straggler to our 

 country. I only find six occurrences recorded by 

 Mr. Howard Saunders ; it is, in fact, a southern 

 species, and our Islands lie far to the northward of its 

 habitual range. I became intimately acquainted with 

 this bird in a certain wild district of Southern Spain, 

 where we found it in great abundance nesting in 

 company with the Black Tern and many other birds of 

 various species, upon some small freshwater lakelets, — I 

 can hardly call them lakes, and ponds would convey the 

 idea of human agency in their formation. It was more 

 than pleasant to lie amongst the rushes on the sandy 

 banks of these waters in the splendid sunshine of an 



