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states that now and then a few individuals are seen in Luxembourg, especially on the Moselle. 

 Professor Schlegel says that it probably occurs on the Dutch coast ; but Mr. Labouchere writes 

 to us that there is no actual instance known of its having been shot there. It does not appear to 

 breed on the island of Borkum now, although, according to Baron Droste Hiilshoff, it used 

 formerly to be commoner than Sterna fluviatilis. According to Degland and Gerbe it passes 

 regularly along the coasts of France, going down as low as the Mediterranean ; it is seen in May 

 and August on the coast of Dunquerque, and has been killed near Bayonne, where, however, it is 

 only accidentally met with. It appears seldom or never to breed below the coasts of the North 

 Sea and Baltic ; but in the autumn it moves southward, and is then to be seen in the Mediter- 

 ranean. Major Loche has recorded it from Algeria as rare, though he gives no instance of its 

 occurrence. Major Irby, however, has given us a specimen in winter plumage from Tangier. 

 To the eastward, in Greece, it is not named by Lindermayer, nor in Southern Russia by Von 

 Nordmann. 



During the winter it extends it range as far as the Cape ; and Mr. Layard, writing of this 

 species under its name of Sterna brachypus in the ' Birds of South Africa,' says : — " During a 

 drive late one evening across a marsh formed by the celebrated hot spring called ' Brandt's Vley,' 

 near the town of Worcester (South Africa), I observed a Tern, new to me, flying in considerable 

 numbers over a portion of open water. Owing to the lateness of the hour I was unable to stop 

 and procure specimens ; but a short time afterwards I received a Tern from Tulbagh, a village at 

 the end of the same valley, which is enclosed between high mountains, though distant about sixty 

 miles, which I immediately recognized as belonging to the same species as those at Brandt's Vley. 

 It answers in all respects to Swainson's ' Short-footed Tern ;' and as such I consider it." 



In Asia this species has been observed both by Radde, who " found it frequenting the steep 

 shores of the Delta of the Angara in July," and by Middendorff, who met with it on the 25th of 

 June near the Taimyr river, where it was then breeding ; but Schrenck does not record it, and it 

 appears to be confined to the northern portion of that continent. 



It occurs throughout the fur-countries of North America, and has been met with on the 

 New-England coast. Captain Blakiston obtained it from York Factory, Hudson's Bay. Mr. 

 Bernard Ross states it is found on Great Bear Lake ; it is mentioned in the ' Fauna Bor.-Am.' 

 under the name of St. arctica ; and Mr. Murray also records it from the Hudson's-Bay Territory. 

 In Greenland it is common, and there entirely takes the place of Sterna fluviatilis, which does 

 not appear ever to occur in that country. 



What we have said respecting the habit of Sterna fluviatilis, is equally applicable to the 

 present species ; and indeed it is difficult to tell the birds apart, unless one can handle them, 

 except by the somewhat darker-coloured underparts. Dresser found them on the north coasts of 

 Finland, where also S . fluviatilis was almost equally common, and could never distinguish any 

 difference between the habits of the two species. When the islands were entered by any intruder, 

 the Terns all rose from their nests and, flying overhead, uttered loud cries : sometimes one would, 

 when its nest was disturbed, fly down close to the spoiler, uttering cries of dismay ; but usually 

 they kept at some height over head. Their flight is very buoyant and easy ; and their movements 

 when fishing on the shores are exceptionally graceful. 



Our friend Captain Feilden, who has just returned from the Fasro Islands, writes the 



