Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/203

Rh 23 miles east-south-east of that town. None of its modern buildings are of any special interest; in the Piano de San Giovanni above the town the substructure of a Roman villa has been excavated, and there are also traces of an amphitheatre. Termini is one of the busiest provincial towns of Sicily; the surrounding district being exceedingly fertile and the harbour good, there is a considerable export trade in grain, fruit, tartar, and other products. The macaroni of Termini is in high repute. The tunny and sardine fisheries are extensive, and there is a school of navigation. The warm saline springs (110 Fahr.), sung by Pindar, are still largely resorted to, there being a well-appointed bath establishment, founded by Ferdinand I. The population of the town in 1881 was 22,370, with its suburbs 22,733 (commune, 23,148).

For the ancient history of Termini see. The castle of Termini, which Robert of Naples besieged in vain in 1338, was destroyed in 1860.

 TERMITES. See,.  TERMONDE.See.  TERN (Norsk Tærne, Tenne, or Tende; Swedish Tärna; Dutch Stern ), the name now applied generally to a group of sea-birds, the Sterniæ of modern ornithology, but, according to Selby, properly belonging, at least in the Fame Islands, to the species known by the book-name of Sand wich Tern, all the others being those called Sea-Swallows—a name still most commonly given to the whole group throughout Britain from their long wings, forked tail, and marine habit. In Willughby's Ornithologia (1676), however, the word Tern is used for more than one species, and, though it does not appear in the older English dictionaries, it may well have been from early times as general a name as it is now.

Setting aside those which are but occasional visitors to the British Islands, six species of Terns may be regarded as indigenous, though of them one has ceased from ordinarily breeding in the United Kingdom, while a second has become so rare and regularly appears in so few places that mention of them must for prudence sake be avoided. This last is the beautiful Roseate Tern, Sterna dougalli; the other is the Black Tern, Hydrochelidon nigra, belonging to a genus in which the toes are only half-webbed, of small size and dark leaden grey plumage. It is without doubt the Sterna of Turner, and in former days was abundant in many parts of the fen country, to say nothing of other districts. Though nearly all its ancient abodes have been drained, and for its purposes sterilized these many years past, not a spring comes but it shows itself in small companies in the eastern counties of England, evidently seeking a breeding-place. All around the coast the diminution in the numbers of the remaining species of Terns within the last 50 years is no less deplorable than demonstrable.

The Sandwich Tern, S. sandvicensis or S. cantiaca—named from the place of its discovery, though it has long since ceased to inhabit that neighbourhood—is the largest of the British species, equalling in size the smaller Gulls and having a dark-coloured bill tipped with yellow, and dark legs. Through persecution it has been exterminated in all its southern haunts, and is become much scarcer in those to which it still resorts. It was, however, never so abundant as its smaller congeners, the so-called Common and the Arctic Tern,—two species that are so nearly alike as to be beyond discrimination on the wing by an ordinary observer, and even in the hand require a somewhat close examination. The former of these has the more southern range, and often affects inland situations, while the latter, though by no means limited to the Arctic circle, is widely distributed over the north and mostly resorts to the seacoast. Yet there are localities where, as on the Fame Islands, both meet and breed, without occupying stations apart. The minute diagnosis of these two species cannot be briefly given. It must suffice here to state that the most certain difference, as it is the most easily recognizable, is to be found in the tarsus, which in the Arctic Tern is a quarter of an inch shorter than in its kinsman. The remaining native species is the Lesser Tern, S. minuta, one of the smallest of the genus and readily to be distinguished by its permanently white forehead. All the species already mentioned, except the Black Tern, have much the same general coloration—the adults in summer plumage wearing a black cap and having the upper parts of the body and wings of a more or less pale grey, while they are mostly lighter beneath. They generally breed in association, often in the closest proximity—their nests, containing 3 eggs at most, being made on the shingle or among herbage. The young are hatched clothed in variegated down, and remain in the nest for some time. At this season the parents are almost regardless of human presence and expose themselves freely.

At least half-a-dozen other species have been recorded as occurring in British waters, and among them the Caspian Tern, S. caspia, which is one of the largest of the genus and of wide distribution, though not breeding nearer to the shores of England than on Sylt and its neighbouring islands, which still afford lodging for a few pairs. Another, the Gull-billed Tern, S. anglica, has also been not unfrequently shot in England. All these species are now re cognized, though the contrary was once maintained, as inhabitants of North America, and many go much further.

An excellent synopsis of the Sub-family Sterninæ, has been given by Mr Howard Saunders in the Zoological Proceedings (1876, pp. 638–672). He recognizes 5 genera,—Hydrochelidon (with 3 species), Sterna (with 38), Nænia, a very aberrant form consisting of but one species, the Inca Tern, peculiar to the western coast of South America, and Gygis, composed of 2 species of purely white birds and restricted to the southern hemisphere; his fifth genus is Anous, to which belong the various species of. Often confounded with these last are the two species called in books Sooty Terns (S. fuliginosa and S. anæstheta), but by sailors "Egg-birds" or "Wide awakes" from their cry. These crowd at certain seasons in innumerable multitude to certain islands within the tropics, where they breed, and the wonderful assemblage at present known as "Wide-awake fair" on the island of Ascension has been more or less fully described from very ancient times. Dampier in his voyage to New Holland in 1699 particularly described and figured the Sooty Tern (Voyages, iii. p. 142), discriminating it from the Noddy, from, which it had not before been distinguished.  TERNATE, a small island in the East Indian Archipelago, off the west coast of (q.v. in 0° 48’ N. lat. and 127° 19′ E. long. It is nearly circular in form, with an area of about 25 square miles, and consists almost entirely of a very remarkable volcano (5600 feet) formed of three superimposed cones. Frequent and destructive eruptions have taken place. Cocoa-nuts, sago, tobacco, cotton, sulphur, and saltpetre are the chief pro ductions of the island. The clove, which had been extirpated by the early Dutch rulers to enhance its value by restricting its cultivation to the Banda Islands, Amboyna, &c., is beginning again to be grown, as also is the nutmeg. The inhabitants are nearly all Mohammedan Malays. The town of Ternate, with a population of about 9000, is the seat of a native sultan and of a Dutch resident; the harbour is commanded by a fort. The residency, which includes a part of the eastern coast of Celebes (see ), the greater part of Jilolo, and numerous smaller islands, has an area of 26,900 square miles and a population estimated at about 290,000.