a 
ALLEN'S naturalist’s LIBRARY. 
Range in Great Britain. — The ^Vhiskc^ed Tern is an acci- 
dental vi.sitor to the British Islands, and the occurrences of 
the species are only some half-dozen at number, specimens 
having been obtained in Cornwall, Devonshire, Dorsetshire, 
Norfolk, and Yorkshire; while Ireland has one record from 
the River Liffey. One of these birds was obtained in May, 
another on Hickling Broad in June, and the remainder in 
autumn. 
Range Outside the British Islands. — This is a species of 
Southern Europe, rarely reaching Northern Germany and the 
British Islands ; but it extends eastw'ards at about the same 
latitude to China, and visits Africa, India (breeding in both 
these countries), and the Malayan Archipelago, as far as 
Australia, in winter. It apparently wanders to the eastern coasts 
of America occasionally, as the British Museum possesses a 
specimen procured by Sir R. Schomburgk in Barbados. 
Hablta. — T-ike the preceding species, this is a Marsh Tern, 
and in habits it resembles II. nigra, the food being the same 
in both species. It nests in colonies. 
Nest. — This is generally a mass of w'eeds, and is often found 
floating on the surface of the water. In Southern Spain, 
where large colonies of the Mfliiskered Tern are met with. 
Major Willoughby Verner visited a breeding- colony of these 
birds at l.a Janda, on the yth of May, 1875, and found 
several hundred nests floating on the top of the water; they 
w'ere simple platforms of reeds and rushes, and were kept from 
drifting to some extent by the young rushes grow'ing up in the 
w'ater. Only two nests contained a single egg. Five days 
later over thirty nests contained eggs. In the interval between 
the visits a strong wund had arisen, and had blown away many 
of the Terns’ nests along the water, till they were packed in a 
dense mass on the lee side of the Laguna.* 
Eggs. — Three in number. Prevailing ground-colour green- 
ish-grey, sometimes clay-colour, the markings of the eggs 
being similar in character to those of the allied Terns, but 
rather more scattered and distinct, -while in some examples the 
* Irby, Orn. Straits Gibraltar, 2nd ed., p. 293. 
