LARID&. 641 
THE CASPIAN TERN. 
STERNA CAsPIA, Pallas. 
This fine Tern, the largest member of the genus, is of more 
irregular appearance on the coast of England than might be expected, 
seeing that some of its breeding-places are at no great distance. 
According to an excellent summary of its occurrences by Mr. J. H. 
Gurney (Zool. 1887, p. 457), nine examples have been obtained— 
and others have been observed—on the coast of Norfolk between 
1825 and 1860; while eight have been killed, at various times and 
places, in Suffolk, Kent, Hants, Dorset, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire ; 
and Mr. E. Bidwell saw an individual near the Farne Islands on 
June 6th 1880. As regards Scotland, Mr. Oswin Lee states that 
he made a sketch of one of two birds noticed at the Findhorn bar 
on June 12th 1887. From Ireland there is as yet no record. 
As a wanderer the Caspian Tern has been obtained at Vagoe in 
the Feeroes on May ioth 1887 (Feilden). It breeds in colonies on 
the sandy shores and islands of Sweden and Denmark, while a well- 
known haunt is (or was) Sylt, one of the North Frisian Islands ; but 
T believe that a few birds have nested still nearer to us, namely on 
the coast of Holland to the south of the Maas, for I saw six adults 
flying in pairs and evidently going out to fish, in the early dawn of 
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