COMMON TERN. 87 as they are as scavengers, I feel that their place in Nature is to animate the barren wastes of the sea. How, when at sea, the presence of a single Gull changes the whole aspect of Nature! The great expanse of water, which before was oppressive in its dreary lifelessness, is trans- formed by the white-winged Gulls into a scene of rare beauty. Every voyager, be he naturalist or not, admires their grace of form and motion. They seem born of the waves, and as much a part of the ocean as the foamy whitecaps themselves. The beautiful Terns or Sea Swallows are even more graceful than the Gulls. They are slenderer birds, lighter Common Tern ^^^^^ more active on the wing, with long, ista;,a hinnuio. forked tails and pointed bills. They Plate X. arrive from the South in May and re- main until September, nesting in colonies. Terns are littoral rather than pelagic, seldom being found far from the shore. Like the Gulls, they seem so in harmony with their surroundings that no coast view is perfect from which the Terns are missing. They add the requisite touch of life, and make still more impressive the thunder of the surf dashing over rocks or curling in long, combing waves on the beach. During recent years these birds have been killed in such numbers for millinery purposes that on the middle Atlantic coast the only survivors exist on three or four uninhabited islets. If one protests against the merciless destruction of these exquisite creatures the excuse is, " Well, what good are they? " — an answer betraying such an utter lack of appreciation of beauty that explanation seems hopeless. Bnt can we not learn, before it is too late, that these birds are even more deserving of protec- tion than the works of art we guard so zealously?
