SMALLER SOOTY TERN. 29 



on an average a nest per square yard. The birds, which were not 

 then sitting (it was the 3rd of June), soon discovered that their 

 colony was being invaded, and flew in hundreds over us for a 

 short time." Besides taking the eggs of other species, such as Eider 

 Ducks, Gulls, &c., he states that he saw more than two hundred 

 eggs of the Sandwich Tern. " In the year when I found them 

 in still greater abundance, they had chosen the same locality 

 for their colony ; but they were so much molested that they 

 soon deserted the place and moved their quarters to the grass- 

 covered island adjoining, where their eggs where in such pro- 

 fusion that we inadvertently trod on many of them. In this 

 locality many of the birds had arranged the scattered bits of 

 dead weed which were lying about into the semblance of a 

 nest. In addition to the Krr-ee, which seems, in a more or less 

 modified form, to be common to all the Terns, the Sandwich 

 Tern has a note which may be represented by the syllables 

 skerr-1'ek. The nesting season in the Fames begins about the 

 middle of May." 



Nest. — This is described by Seebohrn as merely a slight 

 hollow in the bare sand, in diameter and depth of the dimen- 

 sions of a cheese-plate, and he says that the nests and eggs 

 were very difficult to distinguish from the sand and fine gravel 

 by which they were surrounded. The nests are, however, 

 sometimes more substantial structures of bents. 



Eggs. — Two or three in number, rarely the latter. They are 

 very handsome and vary to any extent. The ground-colour is 

 generally clay- coloured or ochreous-buff, deeper or lighter in 

 shade, the spots and markings being black or dark brown, 

 often with the purplish-grey underlying spots very distinct and 

 quite as plain as the overlying spots and blotches. In many 

 examples the spots and scribblings of black are distributed over 

 the whole egg, while others are remarkable for their bold 

 confluent blotches. Axis, 2-0-2-25 inches ; diam., I'SS-i'S- 



V. THE SMALLER SOOTY TERN. STERNA AN.-ESTHETA. 



Sterna ancEsthefa, Scop. Del. Flor. et. Faun. Insubr. i. p. 92, 

 no. 72 (1786); Saunders, ed. Yarrell's Brit. B. iii. p. 565, 

 note (1884); id. Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxv. p. loi (1895.) 



