360 THE BIRDS OF DEVON. 



This species closely resembles the Common Tern, but may be known 

 from it by its darker pearl-grey plumage, by having the underparts 

 equally as dark as the back, and by its conspicuously shorter tarsus. 



CommOll Tern. Sterna JluviatiUs, Naumann. 



[Miret, Mackerel-Bird, Sea-Swallow, GuU-teaser {N. D.).'] 



A passing visitor in spring and autumn, being most frequently met 

 with at the latter season, especially after storms, when it ascends the 

 river estuaries. 



It is difficult to separate records concerning this and the preceding 

 species, but, like that and some other Terns, it is sometimes met with 

 on the coast and estuaries in extraordinary numbers in a weak and 

 exhausted condition. Lr. E. Moore relates that great numbers of young 

 birds frequented the shores of Plymouth harbours for two or three day8 

 after a strong gale in October 1828 ; many of them were very weak, and 

 some were picked up starved (Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830). Mr. E. A. S. 

 Elliot states that " after a continuous and heavy gale from S.W. to N.W. 

 for forty-eight hours, October 16th, 1886, at dusk, near Eowdon Point, in 

 Kingsbridge estuary, an immense flock, some hundreds, of Common Terns 

 appeared and a few pitched on the Point, and that two of them were 

 shot. Next day one was caught alive in an exhausted state." A consi- 

 derable flight visited the coast at Peesands in October 1891, The Common 

 Tern is seldom seen at Plymouth before September, but Mr. Gateombe 

 saw an adult on August 10th, 1881, hovering over a shoal of mackerel. 

 He obtained a young bird as late as November 22nd, 1876 (Zool. 1877, 

 p. 45 ; 1882, p. 63). 



We have seen this Tern on the Exe in July and August (1854, 1855, 

 1863, and 1891). It is rarely observed in winter. Some are said to 

 have been seen at Salmon Pool, near Exeter, in December 1870 or 

 Januar}' 1871, but the birds then observed may have been Arctic Terns. 



To be seen regularly even,- autumn as it is beating south, this beautiful 

 species sometimes occurs in large flocks in the spring when some sudden 

 gale hns interce]jted it in passage and driven it to seek shelter in our 

 tidal rivers. AVe remember some years ago a great multitude of Common 

 Terns appearing in May at Barnstaple, flying over the river by the 

 bridge, and receiving the usual welcome from all who had a gun ready to 

 hand. In September there are usually many of these Terns on the 

 Barnstaple and Bidetord rivers to be seen coming in with the tide and 

 following it inland, wheeling aboixt, and fishing by throwing themselves 

 from time to time abruptly into the water. "We have occasionally seen a 

 single Tern as late as November at Instow, but the main body of the 

 birds which visit our North Devon estuaries goes further south early in 

 October. "We know of no Devonshire nesting-place of the Common Tern. 

 A pair or two were said to breed on Steart Island, off Burnham, in North 

 Somerset, but we could not find any one June morning we visited the 



