THE COMMON TERN. 
/£TV|^ CCORDING to Colonel Goss, 
ffl these birds are abundant on 
I \ the Atlantic coast, decreasing 
/J LA in numbers west, and are 
^"rare and exceptional on 
the Pacific coast. They are migratory, 
arriving from the middle of April to 
the first of May, returning as early as 
the first of September. Their habitat 
is chiefly eastern temperate North 
America and various parts of the 
eastern hemisphere, breeding irregu- 
larly throughout the range. The nests 
have been found from the south coast 
of Florida to the Arctic circle, on the 
lakes in Wisconsin, and in large 
numbers in several of the Magdalen 
Isles, Gulf of St. Lawrence. Writers 
disagree as to the composition of their 
nests, some maintaining that they are 
made of seaweeds and grasses, others 
that they are without material of any 
kind, the eggs lying upon the bare 
ground in a slight depression in the 
sand. The eggs are three or four, of 
a pale blueish or greenish drab, thickly 
and rather evenly spotted and blotched 
with varying shades of light and dark 
brown, with shell markings of pale 
lilac, ovate in form. 
Mr. George H. Mackay has described 
the Terns of Muskeget Island, Massa- 
chusetts, and in a recent article in the 
" Auk," he says : " Civilization is 
continually encroaching upon the 
places along the coast occupied by the 
Terns until there remain at the 
present time few localities adapted for 
such breeding resorts. I visited and 
remained on Muskegon Island July 3-5, 
1897, and while there made, as has 
heretofore been my custom, an 
exhaustive examination of all the 
breeding grounds of the Terns. I 
found on visiting Gravelly Island a 
considerable falling off from the status 
of June, 1896, in both nests and eggs ; 
the occupants were also different, 
being now almost entirely Common 
Terns, its former possessors having to 
a large extent abandoned it." Mr. 
Mackay has been endeavoring to 
protect the Terns from the destructive 
encroachments of hunters and so-called 
"eggers." He says that this season 
the Terns arrived at Muskeget in large 
flocks, thousands dropping from the 
sky when they were first observed. The 
number of young birds was unusually 
large, larger than has been before 
noticed, which result is probably due 
to the protection which has been 
extended to them throughout the 
breeding season, a condition they have 
not before enjoyed. 
This Tern enjoys a large assortment 
of names : Sea Swallow, Wilson's 
Tern, Red Shank, Mackerel Gull, and 
Summer Gull, are a few of them by 
which it is known in various localities. 
In several places on the Atlantic coast 
it breeds in company with other 
species, such as Forster's, Arctic, and 
Roseate Terns, the Laughing Gull, 
and others. Here they breed by 
thousands, fairly filling the air when 
disturbed. They place their nests 
all over the land above high water 
line, on the beach, on the sides of 
the bluffs, and even in the garden 
cultivated by the lighthouse keeper. 
At Gull Island fresh eggs can be 
obtained from the 10th of June to the 
middle of July, as egging parties keep 
them cleaned off about as fast as they 
are laid. Public opinion is rapidly 
coming to the rescue of these 
beautiful birds, and we may reasonably 
hope that they may not be wholly 
exterminated. In connection with 
this article, we call the reader's 
attention to Vol. I, pages 103-104, 
where the Black Tern is depicted and 
described. 
47 
