26 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs 



grounds we were greeted with harsh and noisy screams. Their note is not unlike 

 that of Sterna fluviatilis, but louder and more powerful. When they have young 

 they are said to be extremely bold; and the farmer told us that when, on one 

 occasion, he was visiting them with some friends, a bird took from a lady's hand 

 a pocket handkerchief which she was waving over her head." On the 29th of 

 March, 1871, Dr. Mobuis visited the same breeding place, called Ellenbogen, on 

 Sylt, and saw only seventeen nests, while in 1819 Naumann was able to find three 

 hundred, and Dr. Boie, at a later period, two hundred, showing a continual 

 diminution of the colony. 



Gould says that he could always discover the eggs of this Tern, by the 

 clamorous, cackling, screeching note which the bird constantly uttered while flying 

 near the place where the nest was. He states also that he never saw it breeding in 

 colonies, and unless they were nesting on a large island, he rarely met with more 

 than a pair on an island. 



Mr. Dresser has given so interesting an account of the bird from his own 

 experience, that we make no apology for the following extract from his great 

 work " The Birds of Europe." " This, the largest and most powerful of our 

 European Terns, is almost essentially a frequenter of the sea, seldom occurring 

 inland or on smaller sheets of water ; and it is said to wander less than its allies, 

 being seldom found far from its nest during the breeding season. Where I have 

 met with it on the coasts of Sweden and Finland, it is rather scarce than other- 

 wise, and is found during the breeding season in single pairs, appearing unsociable 

 in its habits ; but in places where it is common, it collects together in large 

 numbers and breeds in colonies. When sitting, the large bill gives it a somewhat 

 ungainly appearance ; but on the wing it is graceful and active in its movements, 

 more so than the Gulls, though slower and not so buoyant as most of the other 

 species of Terns. It is powerful and bold, and is strong enough to protect its 

 eggs and young from any of the Gulls ; but at the same time it is said to take 

 toll, like these, amongst its weaker feathered brethren, and to now and again 

 catch and devour a young bird, or steal an egg or two. It swims more than the 

 other Terns, but is not a very good swimmer. It feeds chiefly on fish, which it 

 catches as they are swimming close to the surface of the water, pouncing down 

 on them after hovering for a moment in the air ; but it is said never to immerse 

 itself below the surface when plunging down after its prey ; but merely dips its 

 head in the water. When caught the fish is swallowed whole, head first; and 

 digestion is very rapid, so that before it has been long in the stomach it is reduced, 

 all except the bones, to a sort of pulp." 



