Story: Gulls, terns and skuas

Terns are slender, graceful birds that feed at the surface of the water by making shallow dipping dives. They hover to spot their prey, which includes small fish and crustaceans. This lithograph of white-fronted terns by Joseph Wolf was published in the account of the 1839–43 voyage of the Erebus and Terror, led by James Clark Ross into the Ross Sea of Antarctica. On their way south the voyagers visited the Auckland Islands, where white-fronted terns are abundant.