32 NESTS AND EGGS OF 



The usual number of eggs laid is three, rarely four. The nests are 

 always placed in elevated situations, in bushes, trees, or on high stumps ; 

 the materials used are sticks and grasses, with a lining of vegetable 

 substances. The eggs vary from greenish to brown, spotted and 

 blotched with brown, umber and lilac of various shades ; these mark- 

 ings are chiefly clustered around the larger end. Size, i-95x 1.34. 



62. Xema sabinii (SAB.) [677.] 



Sabine's Gull. 



Hab. Arctic regions; in North America south to New York, the Great Lakes and Great Salt Lake. 



The Forked-tailed Gull breeds in the extreme northern portion of 

 North America and Asia, especially on the islands of the Arctic Ocean, 

 depositing its eggs in a depression of the sand, which is generally 

 lined with bits of fine, dry grass ; the nest is also often made in beds 

 of moss, with similar lining. This Gull is recorded as abundant in 

 the marshes in the neighborhood of St. Michael's, Alaska, where it 

 breeds. Its food consists of worms and insects, which it obtains in 

 mud lakes. On the northwestern coast of Greenland, above Alison 

 Bay, this species has been found breeding, but not in large colonies. 

 The eggs are two to three in number. They are of a deep greenish- 

 brown, obscurely spotted and blotched with darker shades of the same ; 

 they very closely resemble those of the Willet or Curlew. The aver- 

 age size is 1.75 x 1.25. 



63. Gelochelidon nilotica (HASSELQ.) [679.] 



Gull-billed Tern. 



Hab. Nearly cosmopolitan. In North America chiefly along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United 

 States. 



In North America the Marsh Tern, as it is commonly called, 

 breeds from New Jersey southward. On Cobb's Island, Va., it nests 

 sparingly in the latter part of June. Dr. James C. Merrill and George 

 B. Sennett found a colony of this species in company with Sterna 

 forsteri, breeding on a grassy island, among lagoons and marshes, near 

 Fort Brown, Texas, May 16, 1877. The nests were slight depressions 

 among the short grass, and the eggs were frequently wet.* This Tern 

 breeds abundantly on Pelican Island, in the Gulf of Mexico, in the 

 latter part of May, laying its eggs on the bare sand. Farther south, 

 on the islands along the coast of Mexico and in the Bahamas, it is 

 known to nest in great numbers. The eggs are usually three in num- 

 ber, sometimes four. They vary from yellowish-buff to greenish, 

 spotted and blotched with yellowish-brown and lilac, especially about 



*Notes on the Ornithology of Southern Texas. 



