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southwards to the Blue and White Nile, Sobat, and Bahr-el-Ghazal, and the swamps and steppes 

 of Kordofan. In the southern districts it is, he says, a migrant, occurring from August to March 

 and April. On the shores of the Red Sea he only observed it in the winter around Suez, and 

 in August near Massowa — and in Abyssinia in March, on the Tana lake. In North-west Africa 

 it is also common. Loche says that it is found numerously on the lakes and coasts of Algeria, 

 and breeds at Lake Fezzara and elsewhere ; and Canon Tristram writes of it (Ibis, 1860, p. 82), 

 " Occurs in flocks both in the Western and Eastern Sahara. Several were shot at Bou-Guizoun 

 and near Ain el Ibel, on the El-Aghouat route ; and vast flocks were met with round the Zahrez, 

 in the same country. We found it also breeding at Zana the following spring." Favier does 

 not mention its occurrence in Tangier; but Colonel Irby (Orn. Str. Gibr. p. 208) says that he 

 found it in great numbers about the lakes of Has Dowra towards the end of April, and he was 

 informed by the Arabs that it remained there to breed. It is somewhat remarkable that, though 

 it ranges in the east as far south as Australia, and in America as Patagonia, it is not recorded from 

 South Africa. 



To the eastward it is found as far as the China seas. Severtzoff states (Turk. Jevotn. p. 70) 

 that it is common and breeds throughout Turkestan ; and, according to Dr. Jerdon (B. of India, 

 ii. p. 836), "it is exceedingly abundant all over India, frequenting tanks, marshes, and rivers, 

 and occasionally hunting over the fields. It feeds alike on aquatic food and on grasshoppers, 

 beetles, and other insects, and is a noisy bird. It does not breed in this country, that I am 

 aware of. Mr. Brooks, C.E., Mirzapore, who has paid much attention to the nidification of these 

 and other birds, informed me that he saw these birds passing up the Ganges in continued flocks, 

 whilst other species were breeding at the time in the vicinity. The birds that visit India pro- 

 bably breed in Central and Western Asia." According to Mr. Holdsworth it is common in Ceylon ; 

 and Lieut. W. Vincent Legge says (Ibis, 1874, p. 33) that it is not common in Southern Ceylon, 

 commencing on the south-east coast and getting more numerous towards the north, where it 

 is more abundant than any other species. In Siberia it is not a common species ; for neither 

 Von Middendorff nor Von Schrenck met with it ; but Dr. G. Radde says that he killed a female 

 on the Tarei-nor, where it appeared in small flocks on the 6 th May, old style. Pere David states 

 that he has frequently seen in North China a large Tern with darkish primaries and short tail, 

 which Mr. Howard Saunders believes to be this species ; and I have figured a specimen in winter 

 dress from Amoy. It appears to occur through the Malay archipelago down to Australia, in 

 which latter country it is stated by Mr. Gould (I. c.) to be very rare ; and, he adds, only two 

 specimens have been obtained there — one on the Victoria River, in North-western Australia, and 

 the other at Moreton Bay. 



On the American continent it is somewhat remarkable that it does not appear to occur on 

 the Pacific side, though it is found on the east coast from the United States down to Patagonia, 

 and it is also recorded by Dr. Gundlach as occurring in Cuba. I found it breeding on Galveston 

 Island, in Texas ; and it was not uncommon at Matamoras in July and August. Mr. O. Salvin 

 says that it was common at Chiapam, in Guatemala ; Messrs. Sclater and Salvin record it from 

 Southern Brazil; and Darwin (Voy. Beagle, iii. p. 145) obtained a specimen at Bahia Blanca, in 

 Northern Patagonia, and adds that he saw a flock, which he believed to be of this species, fishing 

 seventy miles from land, off the mouth of the Rio Negro, on the Patagonian coast. In Europe I 



