CHAPTKR XXXII. 



TERNS. 



Before this chapter is closed I have a story to tell, a 

 story of terns, one which though not new is not very widely 

 1 <no\\ n. and yet is so full of pathos that it alone would have 

 van-anted the devotion of a page or two to the Swallows of 

 the Sea. But the terns have many other claims to our 

 attention. Their grace, their similarity when on the wing to 

 the swallows of the English summer, the simplicity yet beauty 

 of their plumage, and the fact that they may often be seen 

 when other birds are absent or hidden, all these things 

 demand that they should have justice done to them in these 

 pages. Of the same great family as the gulls, they belong 

 to another genus, the true terns being known under the 

 classical name of Stcnur. of which the derivation is doubtful. 



We will look at the most common first. That is Sterna 

 jtitvititilis. or Stcnnr Jiinnuio. the "tern-swallow" of our 

 estuaries and coasts. A foot to fourteen inches is about his 

 length when full grown, but a good deal of this is due to a 

 fairly long beak of reddish yellow and a forked tail of great 

 delicacy in point. In marking, the common tern is not unlike 

 the gull, having the same pure white breast and under parts, 

 and a similar greyish-blue, though lighter ui some cases, on 

 the back. He wears a black cap which fits exactly along 

 the centre transverse line of the eye, and his feet and legs are 

 a dull ruddy colour. Such are the simple markings of this 

 interesting bird, but they form a picture that is at once 

 chaste and striking. In the cool season of the year terns 

 may be found in suitable localities in considerable numbers, 

 hawking over the water for fish, insects, or other food. 



S. Ninutn. or S. Sinetisis, as Pere David calls it, is known 

 to Englishmen as the lesser tern. In marking it is much 

 the same as its bigger cousin, but the primaries are darker 

 and there is a white splash from the root of the beak 

 extending over the eye, and thus lighting up the head 

 considerably. The lesser tern reaches only some eight or 

 nine inches in length, and in order to show how much of its 

 substance is "feathers and show" it may be mentioned that 

 its total weight is only about 2 oz. It was once my 

 good fortune to fall in with a flock of them hunting 



