LITTLE TERN. 35 



back ; tail-feathers white ; forehead and feathers above the eye 

 white ; crown of head and nape black, as also a line through 

 the eye and the lores ; cheeks, sides of face, and under sur- 

 face of body pure silky white ; " bill gamboge -yellow, tipped 

 with black ; tarsi and feet orange-yellow " {H. Saunders). 

 Total length, 9*5 inches; culmen, 1-3; wing, 6*8; tail, 3*4 ; 

 tarsus, 0-6. 



Adult Female.— Similar to the male, but with the outer tail- 

 feathers scarcely so developed. Total length, 9*0 inches ; 

 wing, 6*8. 



Adult in Winter Plumage. — Similar to the summer plumage, 

 but with more white on the forehead, and with the outer 

 primaries rather darker towards their ends. 



Young Birds. — These are easily distinguished by the black 

 mottling on the feathers of the upper surface, which takes the 

 form of circular bars or arrow-headed sub-terminal bars, all the 

 feathers being tinged or edged with sandy-buff; the rump 

 light pearly-grey, with a shade of the latter colour over the 

 upper tail-coverts and tail-feathers; wing-coverts mottled like 

 the back, with a dark-grey band along the marginal lesser wing- 

 coverts ; forehead sullied white, the crown sandy-buff streaked 

 with black, the hinder crown and nape entirely blackish ; a loral 

 streak of dusky black ; bill blackish, with a slight reddish tinge. 



The sandy colour of the upper surface in the young bird 

 quickly disappears, but the black bars are maintained till the 

 autumn moult. 



Nestling. — Light sandy-buff, spotted and streaked with black; 

 under surface whitish, the throat sandy-buff, with the region of 

 the gape dusky. 



Range in Great Britain. — The Little Tern is found nesting in 

 scattered colonies on most of the coasts of the British Islands, 

 though many localities in the north of England and in Scotland, 

 where the species formerly bred, know it no more. It arrives 

 from the south early in May, and leaves in September or in 

 the first weeks of October. Mr. Ussher says that in Ireland it 

 breeds on sea-beaches in Donegal, Dublin, Wicklow, Wexford, 

 Galway, and Mayo, but in much smaller numbers than the 

 Common or Arctic Terns. 



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