
o SEA-SIDE HOMES: 
but founded upon the wrong premise, that our species is 
the same as one that lives in South America. When Dr. 
Gambel found out that it was different from both these spe- 
cies, he bestowed upon it the title of the Bridled Tern (S. 
frenata), another very distinctive name, that would be well 
applied, were it not for the fact that M. Lesson, a French 
ornithologist, had previously called it the Antillean Tern 
(S. antillarum), because it is found in those islands in the 
winter. So we have no choice in the matter of a scientific 
name, in which there is not the same license as in the case of 
our common designations. But let the latter be as various 
as they may the little bird is always the same. It spends 
the winter in Central America and about its islands; when 
spring opens it courses northward to visit us; a few ex- 
tend along the Pacific Coast, some up the Mississippi and 
its tribuaries, almost to their very so&rces ; and more along 
the shores of the Atlantic. Some of the latter go as far as 
New England, but there are attractions all along, and de- 
tachments drop off by the way, stopping here and there, till 
the ranks are fairly decimated before the most adventurous 
birds make their final halt. But “their tricks and their 
manners” are pretty much the same under all circumstances, 
and what these are we shall presently see. 
A very different bird is Wilson's Plover; a wader, not à 
swimmer ;:as they say, in words as long as the bird's legs; 
a grallatorial, not a natatorial, species ; which simply means 
that the little bird is content to run along the sand and 
dabble with bill and feet, in the wavelets, instead of boldly 
dashing in among the breakers, like a Tern, for instance. It 
belongs to a genus well-named ZZgialitis, which signifies a 
“dweller by the sea,” and has never been known to forfeit 
its right to the name. We have several other species of the 
Same group. The commonest and most widely diffused of 
these is the “Killdeer,” that everybody knows throughout 
the length and breadth of the land; the Ring Plover and 
Piping Plover are two others, familiar to all New England- 


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