The Caspian Tern 
In carriage the Caspian Tern does not differ especially from its 
fellow Sternce. It frequents lakes, ponds, water-courses, and brackish 
lagoons during the migrations, or else parallels the sea-coast in its major 
flights. It quarters the waters with down-turned beak, 'ike any other 
Tern, and it foregathers 
with its Larine fellows on 
the sunny beaches, or at 
the mouths of estuaries. 
Surface fishes form its 
almost exclusive diet, 
these and a sample or 
two, during the breeding 
season, of baby terns of 
the lesser sorts. 
As a breeding bird 
the Caspian Tern has 
succeeded in building up 
a dual reputation. Some 
describe the birds as soli¬ 
tary nesters, while others 
give circumstantial ac- 
counts of crowded 
colonies. Both tradi¬ 
tions, are, of course, cor¬ 
rect, and this adapt¬ 
ability to local cir¬ 
cumstances has 
doubtless guaranteed 
the cosmopolitanism of 
the race. For example, 
the species is found only 
in isolated pairs on the 
headlands and outlying 
islands of Australia and 
New Zealand. Under such circumstances the male bird keeps a jealous 
watch over the surrounding country, and will threaten the approaching 
stranger by spirited swoops and harsh cries, though he be half a mile 
away from the spot where two or three eggs repose upon the bare shingle. 
Solitary pairs have likewise been seen at the mouth of the Mackenzie 
River, and the bird breeds in the Gulf of Bothnia, as it does also at the 
mouth of the Zambezi, and on the Yukon River as far up as St. Michael. 
A small colony of breeding birds was seen on the sand banks of “Adam’s 
H38 
Taken on Lower Klamath Lake Photo by W. L. Finley and H. T. Bohlman 
A BREEDING COLONY OF CASPIAN TERNS 
