GULL-BILLED TERN. 219 



lows over the salt-marshes, in quest of some aquatic insects or 

 spiders which occur upon the surface of the water. Their 

 food while here appears wholly composed of insects; in 

 Europe also their fare is similar, and they feed upon lepidop- 

 terous insects or moths as well as other kinds, showing indeed 

 by this peculiarity of appetite their independence on the 

 produce of the ocean, and their indifference to salt water as 

 preferred to fresh. 



The Marsh Terns keep apart by themselves, and breed in 

 company on the borders of the salt-marshes among the drift- 

 grass, preparing no artificial nest, laying three or four eggs of 

 a greenish olive spotted with brown. The voice of this species 

 is sharper and stronger than that of the Common Tern. 



This Tern is common along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the 

 Southern States, breeding as far north as Southern New Jersey, 

 and occasionally examples wander to Long Island and the Great 

 Lakes. One has been taken in Massachusetts, and one in the Bay 

 of Fundy. 



Though not a fish-eating Tern, this bird is rarely found away 

 from the sea-shore in America. It utters a variety of notes, the 

 most common being fairly represented by the syllables kay-ttiek, 

 kay-wek. One note is described as a laugh, and is said to sound 

 like hay-hay-hay. 



