The Caspian Tern 



In carriage the Caspian Tern does not differ especially from its 

 fellow SterncB. It frequents lakes, ponds, water-courses, and brackish 

 lagoons during the migrations, or else parallels the sea-coast in its major 

 flights. It quarters the waters with down-turned beak, like any other 

 Tern, and it foregathers 

 with its Larine fellows on 

 the sunny beaches, or at 

 the mouths of estuaries. 

 Surface fishes form its 

 almost exclusive diet, 

 these and a sample or 

 two, during the breeding 

 season, of baby terns of 

 the lesser sorts. 



As a breeding bird 

 the Caspian Tern has 

 succeeded in building up 

 a dual reputation. Some 

 describe the birds as soli- 

 tary nesters, while others 

 give circumstantial ac- 

 counts of crowded 

 colonies. Both tradi- 

 tions, are, of course, cor- 

 rect, and this adapt- 

 ability to local cir- 

 cumstances has 

 doubtless guaranteed 

 the cosmopolitanism of 

 the race. For example, 

 the species is found only 

 in isolated pairs on the 

 headlands and outlying 

 islands of Australia and 



New Zealand. Under such circumstances the male bird keeps a jealous 

 watch over the surrounding country, and will threaten the approaching 

 stranger by spirited swoops and harsh cries, though he be half a mile 

 away from the spot where two or three eggs repose upon the bare shingle. 

 Solitary pairs have likewise been seen at the mouth of the Mackenzie 

 River, and the bird breeds in the Gulf of Bothnia, as it does also at the 

 mouth of the Zambezi, and on the Yukon River as far up as St. Michael. 

 A small colony of breeding birds was seen on the sand banks of "Adam's 



H38 



Klamath Lake Photo by W. L. Finley and H. T. Bohlman 



A BREEDING COLONY OF CASPIAN TERNS 



