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We have taken some pains to examine a series of African specimens with a view to determine whether the 

 two species recently described by Professor Blasius (I. c.) under the names of S. macroptera and S. macro- 

 dactyla, from the Cape, were really entitled to specific distinction. Mr. Howard Saunders, who has for a long 

 time devoted his attention to the study of the Laridce, has critically examined these specimens with us ; and 

 we have come to the conclusion that S. macroptera of Blasius, from South Africa, more recently procured by 

 Mr. Jesse on the Red Sea, is nothing but $. fluviatilis in winter dress. S. macrodactyla we have not yet met 

 with. S. macroptera agrees exactly with S. fluviatilis in every particular, excepting that the bill is described 

 as blackish. However, on examination we find even in immature birds from Africa a trace of red in the bill, 

 which is still more noticeable in adults ; and we attribute the dark colour partly to the season of the year, 

 when both the bill and legs lose their vividness of colour, and partly to an additional fading after death. A 

 younger bird than the one above noticed has the fore part of the head white, and has also the least wing- 

 coverts blackish grey, while the grey on the tail is strongly pronounced. 



The description of the adult in summer is taken from a specimen in our own collection, killed in Germany 

 on the 20th of July 1871, for which we are indebted to Mr. W. Schluter. 



Comparison with the Arctic Tern. The adults of these two birds are not difficult to recognize when in full 

 plumage ; and the present species may always be known (1) by the black marking on the bill near the tip, 

 (2) by the stronger foot and longer tarsus, measuring at least 0"7 inch, and (3) by the wings reaching beyond 

 the tail. In the adult Arctic Tern the bill is entirely coral-red, the tarsus only measures 055, and the tail 

 reaches beyond the wings ; hence the name of macrura, which it sometimes goes by. The young birds are 

 rather more difficult to separate, but may be distinguished by the following characters : viz. by the amount of 

 black on the inner web of the first primary (which is both darker and broader in the Common Tern) and, above 

 all, by the short tarsus of the Arctic Tern (which fully applies to all birds, even the nestlings). Although the 

 adult Common Tern never attains to the entirely crimson bill of the adult Arctic Tern, yet in the young birds 

 the base of the under mandible shows more of an orange-red colour than the immature bird of the other 

 species, which has the bill more or less black. 



The Common Tern is generally distributed throughout Europe, though hardly so abundant as 

 the Arctic in the northern portion of the continent. Like many other Sternce it is common to 

 both the Old and New Worlds, and even extends into Southern Africa. 



To Great Britain and Ireland it is a regular summer visitant, and is known to breed, according 

 to Thompson, in a few localities on the eastern coast of the latter country. Mr. A. G. More 

 remarks that it " breeds on various parts of the coast, from the south to the north of Great 

 Britain, and frequents also the islets in many of the Scottish lakes, but has not always been 

 distinguished from the Arctic Tern." Messrs. Gray and Anderson state that it is " a compara- 

 tively common species in the Firth of Clyde, but a very few pairs only breed with us;" and 

 Captain Elwes found it common, breeding in the Hebrides. Macgillivray gives the following 

 note respecting its distribution in the British Islands : — " Mr. Selby has found it breeding 

 abundantly on certain situations in the Solway and the Firth of Clyde. I have met with it 

 in great numbers in Barry, South Uist, and the whole range of the Long Island. Messrs. 

 Baikie and Heddle note its arriving in Orkney annually in May, in considerable numbers, and 

 remaining till the end of August. Dr. Edmonston alleges that it is the only Tern that visits 

 Shetland ; while Mr. Dunn says he has never seen any other Tern in Shetland or Orkney than 

 the Arctic." Along the southern coasts of England it is not particularly rare, being, however, 

 more common in autumn, at which time of the year great numbers of young are procured. 

 In his account of the Birds of Iceland, Professor Newton writes as follows : — " Mr. Baring-Gould 



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