Older GAVLE. 



Family LARID-ffi. 



Subfamily STERN IN ^. 



THE TERNS. 



The beautiful and graceful Terns, or "Sea-Swallows" as 

 they are often called, are but little known on our Devon- 

 shire coasts, as they are seldom seen except when they 

 pass along our shores in spring and autumn on their 

 migrations. We cannot boast that any of the species 

 spend the summer and find a nesting-station on our 

 beaches. The only places we know of in the South-west 

 of England where any breed are the Chesil Beach, near 

 Weymouth, and one or two other spots on the Dorset coast, 

 where numerous nests of the Common Tern, together with 

 a few of the Little and Sandwich Terns, may be met with, 

 and on some of the Scilly Islands ; while the rare Roseate 

 Tern, which once in considerable numbers nested on those 

 islands, no longer does so, and there is no authenticated 

 instance even of its appearance on any of our Dev(m 

 waters. The Terns nesting at the present day on the 

 Scilly Islands are the Arctic, Common, and Sandwich 

 Terns, and of these the first is by far the most numerous. 

 A few Common Terns may nest occasionally on the 

 Cornish coast. Although most of the British species have 

 been recorded from Devonshire, the Arctic, Common, and 

 Black Terns are the only three which we can claim as 

 being at all common ; the fine Sandwich Tern, chiefly in 

 immature plumage, may be seen occasionally fishing off 

 the southern shores of the county, and the Little Tern 

 also occurs not unfroquently, while there are several 

 others, such as the Whiskered Tern, the White-winged 



