638 WHISKERED TERN. 
in Italy the bird is well known on passage; there are important 
colonies in the swamps of the Danube, as well as in Turkey, Greece 
and the southern districts of Russia ; and a few pairs occasionally 
nest as far north as the morasses near Lublin in Poland. In North 
Africa, from Morocco to Egypt, the Whiskered Tern is abundant in 
suitable localities, and it has been found in the months of our winter 
in full breeding-plumage, as well as in immature dress, as far as the 
Cape of Good Hope. In Asia it is distributed from the Mediterranean 
to Mongolia, and nests freely in Northern India, while southward 
it reaches the Moluccas. There the northern birds seem to meet with 
those which I believe to have been bred in Australia; the winter- 
plumage of the latter being slightly paler than that of our northern 
examples, although I can find no difference between adults in 
nuptial dress from Queensland and from Europe. A young bird 
brought from Barbados by Schomburgk is in the British Museum. 
Like its congeners, this Tern breeds in colonies ; its nest being 
often a large tangled mass of growing weeds pulled together on the 
surface of the water. The eggs, 3 in number, are usually of a pale 
green ground-colour, though sometimes stone-grey or buff, spotted, 
blotched or scrolled with brown and black: measurements 1°55 by 
1°15 in. In Europe incubation commences in May, but July is the 
usual month in India. The food consists of dragon-flies, grass- 
hoppers, caterpillars, aquatic beetles &c., as well as of newts, small 
fish and frogs. The flight is buoyant, but not very swift. 
The adult in breeding-plumage has the forehead, crown and nape 
black ; from the gape to the nape a broad white stripe which forms 
the ‘whisker’ from which the bird derives its trivial name; upper 
parts slate-grey, darker on the shoulders and primaries, except when 
the latter are frosted with pearl-grey ; chin and throat greyish-white ; 
breast slate-grey ; belly and flanks nearly black ; under wing-coverts 
pure white; axillaries white with a tinge of grey; bill blood-red ; 
legs, feet and webs vermilion, the webs less indented than in 
Ff. leucoptera. Length 11 in. (bill 1°4), wing 9°25 to 9°5 in. Indian 
birds, which are probably almost sedentary, are smaller than 
Western examples, which evidently take long journeys to South 
Africa. In winter the forehead and under-parts are white ; the 
crown, nape and ear-coverts being only streaked with black ; while 
the mantle is paler than in summer, and is sometimes of a delicate 
pearl-grey. The summer-dress is assumed by a moult, which com- 
mences in February or March. 
This and the two foregoing species constitute the natural sub- 
division of ‘‘ Marsh-Terns.” 
