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THE TERNS OF OUR COAST: A RETROSPECT 
AND PROSPECT. 
Charles W. Townsend, M. D. 
That the Common, Arctic, Roseate, and, to a less extent, 
Least Terns formerly bred in numbers, not only on the 
islands but on the beaches of the Essex County coast, is a 
well-known fact, and it is also known that at the present 
day Milk Island, off Cape Ann, is the only locality in the 
County where terns breed, and the colony, a small one, is 
limited to the Common species. The prospect, however, is 
very encouraging, as a brief retrospect of conditions among 
the terns will show. 
In 1834, according to Nuttall, and in 1840, according to 
Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, terns bred at Egg Rock, off 
Nahant. In 1846 Samuel Cabot reported Roseate as well 
as Common Terns breeding on the islands of Beverly Har¬ 
bor. In 1876 I found a hundred or more Common, with 
perhaps a few Arctic Terns breeding at Great Egg Rock, 
off Manchester, but after 1878 they abandoned the place. 
Probably the largest colonies of terns were formerly to be 
found breeding just back of the sandy beaches of the county. 
One such colony at Ipswich is described by Mr. Charles J. 
Maynard in his “Naturalists’ Guide.” Here, between 1868 
and 1872, he found from fifty to a hundred pairs of Common 
Terns, together with Arctic and a few Least Terns. He 
stated that he did not find any breeding Roseate Terns, but 
that they were common at Ipswich in the autumn. 
Wanton persecution by gunners, the shooting of the birds 
in sport, and the taking of the eggs for food and as curiosi¬ 
ties, and above all, the systematic slaughter for millinery 
purposes, extirpated the breeding birds here, and brought 
them to the verge of extinction along the whole Atlantic 
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