o 
COMMON TERN. 
open and extended. On several occasions during the month of May, while at sea in the Channel, I 
have seen uninterrupted streams of Terns passing from west to east without intermission for twenty 
minutes or half an hour, the whole space in view as far as the eye could reach being seattered over 
wnth flocks, small parties, or single birds. It is by no means easy on such occasions to distinguish the 
Common from the Arctic Tern; the Sandwich, liowever, the largest and most attractive of the family 
that regularly pass our shores, may be recognized by the more conspicuous black cap, and the lighter 
hue of the exquisite silvery grey of the back and wings. The few Black Terns that now approach 
our islands while on their way to their summer-haunts are also occasionally seen, their darker 
colouring instantly drawing attention and proclaiming the species as the birds flap past in company 
with their more brightly tinted relative. Those tiny travellers the Lesser Terns may be at once 
recognized when fairly in view, their neat and diminutive forms and more jaunty flight rendering all doubts 
as to their identity impossible. 
Under date of May 2lst, 1874, I find an entry in my notes relating to the movements of Terns 
along the south coast : — “ Wind south, weather still and fine. Out at sea off Brighton. Thousands of 
Terns passing along the coast flying east, the course they held being rather less than a mile off the laud. 
I could only distinguish one small party of Black and a couple of Sandwich Terns, the remainder of 
the flocks appearing to bo entirely composed of Common and Arctic : I remarked that many of 
the two latter species were in immature plumage.” I am unable to call to mind the state of 
plumage exhibited by the Terns described as immature. The occurrence, however, was noted down at 
the time the observations were made, precluding all chance of an error having arisen. In June and 
July I have often shot Common Terns, evidently birds of the previous season, still retaining the dark 
markings of the first autumn on the shoulder, as well as a few dusky patches on the wings. Arctic 
Terns also are frequently to be seen in immature plumage resting on the rocks at the Fern Islands, 
within a few hundred yards of wdiero the adults are engaged in their nesting-operations. Though all 
particulars have now slipped my memory, I conclude the birds referred to in the note must have 
been in the stages of those to which attention has just been drawn. I learn from my notes that this 
flight of Terns continued for some days after the 21st of May. The following entry occurs : — “ 25th and 
2Gth. Wind south and light, weather dull and fine. Out in the Channel both days. Numbers of 
Terns still passing; I could only identify one flock of Lesser, the others, as far as could be ascertained, 
being all Common and Arctic, mostly adult but a few immature. The crew of a fishing-boat informed 
us that two or three Skuas had been chasing the flocks of Terns; though afloat, however, the whole of 
both days, I did not catch a glimpse of a single dark-coloured Gull ; the pirates were in all probability 
immature Long-tailed Skuas.” 
The ago at which the Common Tern pairs and nests appears somewhat uncertain ; I am of opinion, 
however, that it is not before the age of two and possibly three years. After the stream of early migrants 
liavo passed along our coasts, I repeatedly met with a few of these Terns fishing along the shores of the 
Channel, exhibiting clear grey backs and apparently adult, with the exception of a dark mark along the 
shoulder of the wing ; the black feathers on the head were also scanty and by no means so well developed 
as on the adults. As birds in this plumage were to be met Avith at sea round our shores all summer, 
though never observed near their nesting-quarters, it was evident that this species does not pair and breed 
till the perfect adult dress is assumed. 
Terns usually move towards the south as autumn draws to a close, and, I believe, arc seldom seen 
after October. While awaiting Ducks at flight-time, however, in the last week of October, 18G4, on 
the shores of the Firth of Forth near North Berwick, a small flock of birds, that I first mistook for 
Gulls, was observed to flap slowly past tlie last ray of light remaining in the sky. A moment later. 
