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" it is most numerous on Sylt, where, in Boie's time, the colony consisted of about two hundred 



pairs. In August and September the old birds from there visit the south-western shores of the 



Pdngkjobing fjord and the Fiil lake. Faber found it in July 1824, breeding on Veiero, and in 



1827 on the Nordreronner, at Lseso ; Mechlenburg obtained it from the Flensborg fjord, 



Boiling from Ribe ; Melchior met with old and young birds on Eeno, near Gauno, in Seeland." 



It is, however, rapidly decreasing in numbers ; for when Naumann visited the island of Sylt in 



1819 the colony consisted of about three hundred pairs; when Boie subsequently was there it 



had dwindled to two hundred pairs; and Dr. Mobius, who was there in 1871, reported that at 



the old breeding-place on the north-eastern frontier of the island there remained but seventeen 



pairs: but, as below stated, when Mr. Durnford visited Sylt in 1874 he found about twenty-five 



pairs breeding there. On the southern shores of the German Ocean the Caspian Tern becomes 



rarer ; and Professor Schlegel says that it has only been met with on a few occasions on the 



Dutch coast, the last four having been seen on the 21st June, 1847, near Leiden. On the Belgian 



and French coasts it is occasionally met with ; and Messrs. Degland and Gerbe say that on the 19th 



January, 1827, after a storm two were found, dying, in the fields near Douai, since when several 



have been killed near Dunkerque and Tournai ; and it occurs sometimes on the coasts of the 



south of France. M. Lacroix says that it occurs rarely on the coasts of Aude and Herault, and 



has been met with near Cette. It is included in Professor Barboza du Bocage's list of the birds 



of Portugal with a query ; and Colonel Irby says that he did not meet with it on the coast of 



Spain, and that it is only an accidental straggler there. Mr. Saunders informs me that " it is 



occasionally obtained at the mouth of the Guadalquivir;" and although Colonel Irby did not 



notice it there, I have seen both specimens and eggs from that locality ; it also breeds on the 



islands of the Mar Menor, to the north of Cartagena, where Mr. Crotch observed it. On the 



coasts of Italy it is rare, and only of irregular occurrence ; and on those of Sicily its appearances 



seem to b'e few and far between ; but Cantraine found it breeding on the desert islands near 



Sardinia, and it visits the coasts of that island (especially the part near the Straits of Bonifacio) 



regularly in April and May. 



A single instance of its occurrence in Malta is recorded by Mr. C. A. Wright, who says that 

 he obtained an adult female on Fort-Manoel Island on the 21st of May 1869. Lord Lilford 

 met with it on the coast of Albania ; and Dr. Kriiper says that he often observed it in the 

 winter in the lagoons of Missolonghi, where, however, it does not breed ; but he saw one pair on 

 the islands near Smyrna. Colonel Drummond-Hay met with it in April near Butrinto ; Von 

 Pelzeln says that one was obtained at Seefeld, in Austria, previous to 1822 ; but I find no other 

 record of its occurrence in Southern Germany, though it is met with on the coast of Turkey, and 

 breeds in the marshes of the Dobrudscha. In the Black Sea it is, Professor Nordmann says, 

 much less common than on the Caspian ; and he mentions that he shot one near Sebastopol in 

 March 1836. 



As above stated, Dr. Kriiper observed it near Smyrna ; and Lord Lilford writes to me that 

 he saw two Caspian Terns close to the town of Limasol, in Cyprus, on the 7th May, 1875, and 

 adds that this was the only occasion on which he met with this Tern during his latter Mediter- 

 ranean voyages, though it was not very uncommon on the coast of Epirus during the winters of 

 1856-57 and 1857-58. Canon Tristram met with it in Palestine, and says that he saw several 



3t 



