LITTLE TERN. 655 



other shots were fired, and four of them by myself, but no 

 more were obtained. In the mean time, the students searched 

 the sands, and discovered about a dozen nests which had not 

 been plundered. The nests were simply a shallow cavity in 

 the sand, and all of them contained two eggs excepting one, 

 in which there was exactly half that number. All round 

 them were footmarks of the birds, which seem capable of 

 walking pretty well, as sometimes the tracts could be traced 

 for many yards. The eggs are very large for the size of the 

 bird, rather broadly ovate, but somewhat pointed, of a deli- 

 cate pale yellowish-grey colour, irregularly blotched, spotted, 

 and dotted with blackish-brown and pale purplish-grey. One 

 of them measures in length one inch four-twelfths and a 

 quarter, in breadth ten-twelfths and a half; another one inch 

 three-twelfths in length, eleven-twelfths and three-fourths in 

 breadth. The birds shot happened to be male and female, 

 both very perfect specimens. 



" Extremely beautiful they are, with their pure unsullied 

 plumage. The bill, which seems rather long in proportion, 

 is slender, slightly arcuate, much compressed, and tapering 

 to an extremely attenuated point ; its colour light orange, the 

 tips of both mandibles black, the upper to the extent of 

 4", the lower less. The little delicate feet, of which a small 

 portion of the tibia is naked, and the webs with a concave 

 outline — that between the third and fourth toes much larger 

 — are of a pure orange ; the long arcuate, extremely slender, 

 and finely-pointed claws black, with a greyish-blue tinge at 

 the base. On the forehead is a triangular pure white space, 

 its two hinder angles prolonged over the eyes ; it is separated 

 on each side from the white, along the basal edge of the man- 

 dible, by a narrow band of deep black, continuous behind the 

 eyes with the pure black of the head and nape. The upper 

 parts of the body and wings are of a very delicate greyish- 

 blue, excepting the hind part of the back and the tail, which 

 are pure white, the outer two primary coverts, which are 

 black, and the outer webs, shafts, and nearly half of the inner 

 webs of the outer two primary quills, with the basal portion 

 of the shaft of the third quill, which are greyish-black. The 

 whole under surface is of the purest snow-white, only the 



