By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 



173 



I 1 small. The Common Tern is not so generally distributed on our 

 [ shores, as its name would seem to imply : it is however abundant in 

 I some favoured localities, and I have many notices of its occurrence 

 K from time to time both in North and South Wilts. Its general 

 i plumage is pearl-grey above and white below, but the velvet-black 

 1 crown of the head, and the bright-red beak, legs and feet, conduce 

 i much to the really handsome appearance of this slender graceful bird. 

 " Arctic Tern." (Sterna Arctica.) This species is perhaps 

 numerically more abundant than the preceding, to which indeed it 

 ; bears a very close resemblance, and with which it is doubtless often 

 confounded. It is only to be distinguished from S. hirundo by its 

 t shorter and deeper-coloured beak, and by the darker under plum- 

 ! age which is of a light grey colour. It is doubtless a frequent 

 visitor in Wiltshire, and Yarrell mentions Devizes as one of the 

 places visited by considerable numbers in the strange irruption of 

 these birds in 1842, as recorded by Mr. Strickland in the Annals 

 and Magazine of Natural History for that year : but beyond this 

 notice the only positive evidence I have of its occurrence in our 

 county, is in a note from Mr. Elgar Sloper, who informs me that 

 three were brought to him which had been killed on the Kennet 

 and Avon Canal, near Devizes, after a gale from the west in 

 October, 1844. 



" Black Tern." (Sterna fissipes.) The dark sooty colour of its 

 plumage at once distinguishes this species from its congeners. 

 Although in every respect a true Tern, it differs in habits from 

 those previously described, inasmuch as it seeks fresh-water lakes 

 and rivers in the interior, where it lives upon such flies and other 

 insects as suit its palate. Hence it has more frequently been met 

 with in Wiltshire than any other species. Thus I was informed 

 by Mr. Withers that three specimens had been brought to him for 

 preservation in the spring of 1853, one of which was killed at 

 Compton Basset by Mr. Heneage's keeper : and two at Berwick 

 Basset. Mr. Marsh showed me two in his collection which were 

 killed near Bath in 1845. The Rev. Henry Methuen not only 

 recorded the capture of one at All Cannings on May 2nd, 1849, 

 but generously presented it to our Museum at Devizes (a very 



