296 



Adult in winter (Amoy). Differs from the adult in summer dress in lacking the black cap, the forehead 

 being white, the nape greyish white striped with black ; space before the eye marked with black, and 

 a dull blackish stripe behind the eye ; rest of the plumage as in summer. 



Adult Female. Resembles the male, but is a trifle less in size. 



Young in down [fide Naumann) . Head greyish white on the hind crown, and nape marked with a few small 

 blackish grey spots ; a larger spot on the ear and a mark carried from the end of the gape under the 

 cheek, both blackish grey; upper parts light grey, darker in shade than the nape and hind crown, 

 marked with blackish grey spots, which run into stripes, of which the four central ones are the most 

 clearly defined; chin, throat, and underparts pure white, except the fore part of the neck, which is 

 greyish white ; bill short, pale reddish at the base, greyish in the middle, and white at the tip ; iris 

 brownish grey; feet dull reddish white. 



The range of this Tern extends throughout Southern Europe (for it occurs in North Europe only 

 as a straggler) and North Africa, eastward to Southern Siberia and the China seas down to 

 Australia ; and on the American continent it ranges from the United States down to Patagonia 

 on the east side, but on the west side it has only been recorded from Guatemala. 



In Great Britain it is a rare straggler, and has only been met with in England, and not in 

 Scotland or Ireland. It was first described by Colonel Montagu from a specimen obtained in 

 Sussex ; and besides this, Yarrell records the occurrence of one near Leeds, and of another in 

 Kent in June 1839. One is in the Bury-St.-Edmunds Museum, which was obtained in Breydon 

 Harbour, Yarmouth, on the 14th April 1849; and a Norfolk-killed example is in the Wisbeach 

 Museum. Two are recorded by Mr. Gurney as having been obtained at Yarmouth — one on the 

 24th May 1850, and one in July 1851; and two are stated by Mr. Knox (Orn. Rambl. in 

 Sussex, p. 253) to have been obtained in Sussex — one at Rye Harbour, and the other at Selsea. 

 The Rev. M. A. Mathew records two as having been procured at Barnstaple in the autumn of 

 1859, and Mr. J. Gatcombe one from near Plymouth in the autumn of 1866; and, according to 

 Baron von Hiigel, one was killed near Christchurch, Hants, on the 14th May 1872. 



It is not found in Norway, Sweden, or Finland ; and I have no record of its occurrence in 

 Northern or Central Russia, or in the Baltic provinces ; but Borggreve says that it is only a rare 

 visitant to the coasts of North Germany; and, according to Naumann, it is stated to have 

 formerly bred on the island of Lips, in the Baltic. Boeck obtained it from the German Ocean ; 

 and it has occurred once in Miinsterland. 



Mr. J. Collin says (Skand. Fugl. p. 587) that " the first who recorded it as occurring in 

 Denmark was Mr. Teilmann, who shot a pair in South-western Jutland in June 1819. It breeds 

 in several parts of the country, but appears to have been formerly more numerous than at 

 present is the case. It used to breed numerously on Hostrup So, near Aabenraa, and is also 

 stated to have bred on Mols. Some years ago Mecklenburg found at least thirty pairs breeding 

 at Kliplev, and obtained both adult and young birds in various stages of plumage ; and reliable 

 people say that the colony used to be much larger. I have shot several on Felsoen and Ring- 

 kjobing Fjord in August. According to Dr. Heiberg a small colony breed on the island in 

 Sperring So (Thy), and a pair or two bred in the Flade So, at Agger, in 1874, and formerly it 

 used to breed much more numerously in the former place, as also on the Sjorring So. Grell 



