HYDROPROGNE CASPIA.
Caspian Tern.
Sterna caspia, Pall. Nov. Comm. Petrop., tom. xiv. p. 528.
tsefafrma, Lepechin, Nov. Comm. Petrop., tom. xiv. p. 500.
meiu/nchos, Meyer, Taschenb. Deutschi. Vög., tom. ii. p. 457
Thalasstus caspius, JBoie, Isis, 1822, p. 563.
Hydroprogne caspia, Kaup, NatUrl. Syst., p. 91.
Sylochelidon caspia, Brehm, Vög. Deutschl., p. 770.
- —— ■ ■ baltica, Brebm, ib., p. 769.
ScKllingii, Brehm, ib., p. 770.
—r>— ——- strenmis, Gould, Handb. Birds of Australia, vol. ii. p. 392.
Four or five instances are on record o f
Suffolk ; there cannot, therefore, be aw
Britain. It is tolerahhr common in mu
more abundant. M r .
it in the birds of Nor?-!-; A*
Great Tcm of Tasmania, ttc*
that I v i s in error in so Aw
to the Antipodean bird as a
the case to be correct, the r
:t* states t
erica. V
> its somewhat I
Yielding t<
fnonym with th
iRev
: o f then
large and magnificent Tern having been killed in Norfolk and
bt as to the propriety o f admitting it into the avifanua o f Great
irts o f the continent o f Europe ; in Africa and India it is still
und all over China; and both Dr. -Baird and Mr. Coues include
I wrote ray work on the birds o f Australia, I considered the
arger size, to be distinct; but Jerdon and others are o f opinion
■ their judgment I now place the name strenuus I had assigned
>se given to the bird found in Asia. Presuming this view of
o f the species is wide, indeed far wider than I at that time supposed, since
Tasmania must now be included in its habitats.
The following extract from Yarrell will furnish all the information respecting the occurrence o f the Caspian
Tern in England up to the date at which he wrote (since then, however, Mr. Stevenson has recorded another
e&pmple, o f an adult male killed on Breydon Broad in 1862; vide Zoologist, 1862, p. 8093)
“ Several specimens o f this fine large Tern, called the Caspian Tern, have been killed within the last few
years on our eastern coast, particularly in the counties o f Suffolk and Norfolk. Two early examples are
those mentioned by the Messrs. Paget in their ‘ Sketch o f the Natural History o f Yarmouth and its
neighbourhood,’ one o f which was killed in October 1825 ; another was presented to the Norwich Museum
Steward, o f Caistor, near which place it was shot. Three or four were seen at Aldborough,
shot, which is now preserved in the Museum of the Philosophical Society of
/ the Rev. L. Jenyns in his ‘Manual o f British Vertebrate Animals.’ Mr.
Caspian Tern shot in Norfolk in 1839; and I have received other communimight
possibly refer to some o f those instances already mentioned; but enough
species to a place in our catalogues o f British birds.
parted to breed annually at Sylt, an island o f Denmark, on the west coast of
visit« »bo the mouth o f the Baltic, and is seen in the vicinity of the Elbe. It
; M. Temmiticb mentions that he has himself
' G<
and it visits the coasts o f France. M. Necker and
rds o f Switzerland, the former quoting four instances
rail* it the king o f the Sea-swallows, in reference to
w » with and killed on the extensive rocks near
it in his wwk on the birds o f Italy; it inhabits the
who have lately visited the Caucasus found it in the
its very .
Bonifacio, a seaport t
Grecian archipelago;
vicinity o f the Caspian Sea, where it win
The Caspian Tern has been found at Se.
That the Caspian Tern breeds freely
the writings o f continental authors : hut
for this work by Mr. H. E. Dresser, kh
bird to be breeding sparingly on the sms
vi indudet
naturalists
s originally found, and whence it received its first name from Pallas,
negal and at the Cape o f Good Hope.”
in many parts o f Northern Europe we have abundant evidence from
it would appear to be not so numerous in others ; for in a note written
idly forwarded to me some years since, he says:— “ I observed this
ill islands in the Gulf o f Bothnia. On one o f them, outside Uleaborg,
‘The
o f its
M.
• €c
the
called Krassili, I found a nest on the 12th o f June, 1861, and shot the bird. The nest was merely a hole
scratched in the sand, with a few straws arranged round the inside, and contained only one egg. The mate
o f the bird I shot continued flying close over our heads the whole time we remained on the island, crying in
the hoarse manner from which its Swedish name ‘ Skr'autarna ’ is derived. I have several times had the