160 THE BIRDS OF. CALCUTTA. 



Whether from their greater ability to provide for 

 themselves piscatorially, or from a heat-enduring 

 nature, the Gulls' graceful relatives, the Terns, are 

 quite at home in the Tropica. They certainly prefer 

 warm regions, as they leave Northern Europe in 

 winter, and many breed even in our seas around 

 India. They may be known from Gulls by their 

 usually smaller size, forked tails — ^whence their 

 alternative name of sea-swallows — and small feet, 

 and their bills- are not hooked like those of Gulls. 

 They are constantly on the wing, plunging down 

 with a headlong dash on their prey of small fish and 

 shrimps, or even hunting over the dry land for 

 insects. Most of them are so much alike in colour, 

 being of a delicate grey set off by a black cap, that 

 they are hard to distinguish at a distance ; but one 

 species or another may often be seen about Calcutta. 

 I have even noticed them hawking over the museum 

 tank, right in the town. Occasionally in winter 

 they find their way into the Provision Bazaar, where 

 not being ducks or " E-shnipe," they go down as 

 " Peeluver bird " along with other miscellaneous 

 wild fowl. Some of these really are worth eating, 

 but it is hard when the pretty Terns are translated 

 from their proper sphere of landscape ornamentation 

 to ingloriously disfigure a sorry scrap of toast. 



