34 



ALLENS NATURALISTS LIBRARY. 



number consumed daily in June was fifty ; and supposing the 

 convicts (twenty in number) to have consumed as many, 3,000 

 young birds must have been killed in one month ; yet I could 

 observe no sensible diminution in the number of young, a 

 circumstance which will give the reader some idea of the vast 

 number of birds of this species congregated on a mere vegetated 

 sand-bank like Raine's Islet." 



A similar gathering of these Terns during the nesting-season 

 has been described and figured by the Hon. Walter Rothschild 

 in his " Avifauna of Laysan." 



Nest, — None, the egg being deposited in the sand or among 

 the fissures of the volcanic debris of an island such as 

 Ascension. 



Egg-. — One only. Compared with the eggs of S. afiastheta^ 

 the markings, though very similar in character, are, as a rule, 

 bolder, and the ground-colour approaches in some specimens 

 to a purplish-buff. Axis, i'95-2-i5 inches; diam., i'35-i'55- 



VIL THE LITTLE TERN. STERNA MINUTA. 



Sterna minufa, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 228 (1766) ; Macgill. 

 Brit. B. V. p. 652 (1852); Dresser, B. Eur. viii. p. 279, 

 pi. 582 (1876); B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 181 (1883); 

 Saunders, ed. Yarrell's Brit. B. iii. p. 558 (1884); Seebohm, 

 Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 289 (1885) ; Saunders, Man. Brit. B. 

 p. 635 (18S9); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xxix. (1894); 

 Saunders, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxv. p. 116 (1896). 



Adult Male. — General colour above pearly-grey, the wing- 

 coverts like the back ; lower rump and upper tail-coverts 

 white ; bastard-wing pearly-grey, but the primary-coverts 

 blackish like the primaries, the first three of which are blackish 

 along the outer web and also along the inner side of the shaft 

 for the whole length of the quill, broadening on the second 

 and third primary, all three of them having the rest of the 

 inner web white ; remainder of the primaries pearly-grey, a 

 little darker than the back, and with white margins to the inner- 

 most; secondaries mostly white, the outer web and the shaft 

 dusky-grey ; the innermost secondaries pearly-grey like the 



