292 
LARIDiE. 
the sea,* or at other fresh-water lakes in Scotland, be the S. 
hirunclo , as it, alone, have I found selecting for its nest such 
places in Ireland. 
In the year 1826, at the end of May, I saw the S. hirundo 
commonly in the fens of Holland, and towards the end of July 
about the lagunes of Venice. In 1841, when descending the 
Rhone from Lyons to Avignon, on the 9th of April, I remarked 
some terns, most probably of this species, at the wildest parts of 
the river where bordered by extensive sandy tracts; and when 
proceeding by water from Constantinople to the Valley of Sweet 
Waters, on the 14th of May, several birds of this genus which 
appeared, resembled the 8. hirundo. Towards the evening of the 
21st, a number of terns, similar to this species, were observed 
flying in company to a little rocky islet — very like a breeding-haunt 
— off the north-east side of the beautiful island of Mytilene ; and 
in a locality of the same nature near the island of Paros, I saw 
a couple, apparently of the 8. hirundo , about ten days afterwards. 
I mention those seen in the south-east of Europe with some 
doubt, as none of them were obtained for examination. Recent 
authors, so far as I have referred to them, with the exception of 
Capt. Drummond, do not positively state that the 8. hirundo is 
found there, though the Sterna affinis is so.f 
On the 13th of July I remarked this species on the Lake of 
Constance, and on the 15th and 16th, when proceeding down the 
Rhine from Basle ; — at the wild desert-like sandy banks of the 
river not far from that city, were numbers, both of S. mmuta and 
8. hirundo : such of the latter as came near were adult, and the 
manoeuvres of both species satisfied me that they breed in marshes 
at the river side. Thence to Cologne they appeared occasionally, 
and dashed down from a height into the muddy Rhine, in which 
human vision was unable to detect any object, just as they do 
into the clear pure sea.J 
* St. John ; c Wild Sports,’ &c., chap. xxv. p. 201. 
f Captain Drummond states that S. hirundo is common at Corfu in spring, and 
one specimen was obtained by him in the island of Crete, on the 18th of June. — 
‘ Ann. Nat. Hist.’ vol. xii. pp. 422, 427. 
t Turning to the fine old work of Willughby, after the above was written, I find 
