Mr. Selby on the Birds of the Farn Islands. 463 



rior web of the first feather black ; tail grey, the exterior webs 

 the darkest, the tips of the feathers white ; under parts white ; 

 legs pale red. 



Sterna Cantiaca. Gmel. 1. 606. 



Sterna Boy siu Lath. Ind. 2. p. 806. sp. 10. 



Africana. Gmel. Lath. &c. 



Greater Sea Swallow. Albin. 2. pi. 88. 

 Sandwich Tern. Lath. Syn. 6. p. 356. 



This elegant species till within the last two seasons frequented 

 these Islands in great numbers, but the colony having been re- 

 peatedly disturbed and shot at, and the eggs taken away in the 

 beginning of the season of 1824, they nearly all departed, and 

 migrated to the Coquet Island, situated about 14 or 15 miles to the 

 south of Farn. This season I found the colony reduced to a com- 

 paratively trifling number, which had selected a fresh station upon 

 the Walmsey. The eggs of this species vary greatly in colour 

 and markings, the prevailing one is a white or cream-coloured 

 ground, with spots and blotches of a deep brown. Like the Arc- 

 tic and Roseate Terns they prey upon the Sand-Launce and 

 young Gar-fish, which they capture by precipitating themselves 

 upon the shoals as they rise to the surface of the water. 



Genus Larus. Linn. 



Larusfuscus, Linn. 1. 225. Lath. Ind. 2. p. 815. sp. 8. 

 — - — Jlavipes. Meyer Tasschenb. 2. 469. 

 Lesser black-backed Gull. Mont. Orn. Diet. 



Montagu in his Ornithological Dictionary has made a curious 

 mistake, having appended the synonyms of the Herring Gull 

 (Larus argentatus) to this species, and vice versa. It resorts to 

 this station in great numbers, and colonizes two of the larger 

 Islands, called the Walmsey and Harcus. The eggs are not easily 

 distinguished from those of the Herring Gull, and the dispositioa 

 of the colours of the young is similar, though they are darker. 

 This species was long confounded with the Larus marinus (Great 

 black-backed Gull) although it never attains one half its size, 



