BRITISH BIRDS 



THE SOOTY TERN. 

 Sterna fuliginosa, J. F. Gmelin. 

 Plate 70. 



The Sooty Tern shown on this plate, with other species which occasionally or 

 only rarely visit the British Islands, has occurred half-a-dozen times, the first in 

 Staffordshire in October 1852, and the last in Sussex in April 191 1. It inhabits the 

 tropical seas throughout the greater part of the world, and breeds in large colonies 

 on various islands, notably Ascension. 



According to Dresser's Manual of Palcearctic Birds, it usually lays only one 

 egg, " white or cream-buff in ground-colour, the shell-markings purplish-grey, and 

 the surface spots and blotches deep red." 



The Lesser Sooty Tern, 5. ancestetka, Scopoli, and the Noddy Tern, Anous 

 stolidus (Linnaeus), are said to have occurred in British waters, but the records are 

 not now considered satisfactory. 



THE SANDWICH TERN. 

 Sterna cantiaca, J. F. Gmelin. 

 Plate 71. [Frontispiece.) 



This species, first recognized near Sandwich in 1784, is a regular summer 

 visitant to the British Islands, breeding chiefly on the eastern coasts of Great 

 Britain and on some of the loughs in Ireland. In Europe the Sandwich Tern 

 nests on the coasts of Denmark, the Netherlands, and in some parts of the 

 Mediterranean, ranging eastwards to the Caspian Sea, while in winter its visits 

 extend over a great part of Africa and South-western Asia. It also inhabits 

 America. 



The nest is a slight hollow scraped in the sand, and contains two or 

 occasionally three eggs, varying in ground-colour between a pale yellowish- 

 white and buffish stone-colour, spotted and marked with dark brown and pale 

 grey. 



In habits, the present species does not appear to differ from the other salt-water 

 Terns, but, compared with the Common and Arctic Terns, its larger size and bolder 



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