With an easy and buoyant flight, the Tern visits the whole of our indented coasts, with the intention of procuring food, or of rearing its young, amidst all the comforts and enjoyments which kind Nature has provided for it. Full of agreeable sensations, the mated pair glide along side by side, as gaily as ever glided bridegroom and bride. The air is warm, the sky of the purest azure, and in every nook the glittering fry tempts them to satiate their appetite. Here, dancing in the sunshine, with noisy mirth, the vast congregation spreads over the sandy shores, where, from immemorial time, the species has taken up its temporary abode. They all alight, and with minced steps, and tails carefully raised so as not to be injured by the sand, the different pairs move about, renew their caresses, and scoop out a little cavity in the soil. If you come again in a few days, you will find the place covered with eggs. There they lie, three in each hollow, beautifully spotted and pointed; and as they receive heat enough from the sun, the birds have left them until evening. But not absent are they from the cherished spot, for they have seen you, and now they all fly up screaming. Although unable to drive you away, they seem most anxiously to urge your departure by every entreaty they can devise; just as you would do, were your family endangered by some creature as much stronger than yourself as you are superior to them. Humanity fills your heart, you feel for them as a parent feels, and you willingly abandon the place. The eggs are soon hatched; the young in due time follow their parents, who, not considering their pleasant labour ended when they are able to fly, feed them on wing in the manner of swallows, until they are quite capable of procuring their subsistence themselves. So soon as this is the case, the young birds fly off in bands, to seek on distant shores, and in sunny climes, the plentiful food which the ocean yields.
The nest of the Common Tern is, as I have said, a mere hollow made in the loose sand of some island or mainland beach, scantily tufted with wiry grass, or strewed with sea-weeds. Their eggs never exceed three in number; their average length is 1 inch 5 1/2 eighths, their breadth 1 1/4 inch. They vary greatly in their markings, as is the case with those of all the smaller species of this family; but their ground colour is generally pale yellowish-green, blotched and spotted with brownish-black and purplish-grey or neutral tint.
The young, which are fed with small fishes, shrimps, and insects, separate from the old birds when fully fledged, and do not again associate with them until the following spring, when both are found breeding in the same places. It seems quite curious to see these young birds in winter, during boisterous weather, throwing themselves into the remotest parts of estuaries, and even visiting salt-water ponds at some distance from the sea, as I have often seen them do at Charleston, in South Carolina, when accompanied by my friend the Rev. Dr Bachman. Their plumage is then so very different from that of the old birds, that one might readily believe them to be of another species, did he not observe that their mode of flying and their notes are the same. Not less strange is it, that on such occasions none of the old birds are to be seen in the place, they having remained, braving the fury of the tempest, on the outer harbours. In the beginning of winter, young birds also sometimes ascend the Mississippi as far as Natchez; and in the same manner betake themselves to all the large lakes bordering the Gulf of Mexico. There, as well as elsewhere, you see them plunge into the water, and instantaneously secure their prey, rise as quickly, and dash into another spot hard by, whenever food happens to be abundant.
I have many times seen the Common Tern suddenly fly up and come close over a man or a dog, without the least apparent provocation, indeed when far distant from its nest, and then pass and repass repeatedly within a few yards, emitting a plaintive cry, as if its eggs or young were in the immediate vicinity. At other times, when the birds were yet distant from their young, and carrying fish in their bills, they would, on seeing a man, round to, drop their food, and perform the same evolutions. I, however, know nothing more remarkable of this species of Tern, than that it should breed, as I know from personal observation to be the case, along the whole of our Atlantic coast, in suitable places, from Texas to Labrador.
When travelling in stormy weather, they skim over the surface of the water, moving rapidly and close together; whereas in fine weather, they rise high, and proceed in a straggling manner. Now and then I have seen them alight among Tringas of different species, as well as among Razor-billed Shearwaters, on outward sand beaches.
Sterna Hirundo, Linn. Syst. Nat., vol. i. p. 227.—Lath. Ind. Ornith., vol. ii. p. 807.—Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of the United States, 354.—Richards. and Swains. Fauna Bor. Amer. vol. ii. p. 412.
Great Tern, Sterna Hirundo, Wils. Amer. Ornith., vol. viii. p. 76, pl. 60, fig. 1.
Great or Common Tern, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 271.
Adult Male. Plate CCCIX.
Bill about the same length as the head, rather slender, compressed, nearly straight, tapering to a narrow point. Upper mandible with the dorsal line slightly arched, the ridge rather broad and convex at the base, narrow towards the end, the sides sloping, convex towards the end, the edges sharp and inflected, the tip very slender. Nasal groove rather long, and with a faint groove and ridge extending obliquely to the edge of the mandible; nostrils sub-basal, linear, direct, pervious. Lower mandible with the angle very narrow, extending beyond the middle, the dorsal line straight, the sides ascending and convex, the edges sharp and inflected, the tip very acute.