O74 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
outside feathers on each side have the outer webs 
dark grey, the rest of the feathers white; the chin is 
white; the breast, belly and flanks are nearly the 
same shade of gull-grey as the back; the under tail- 
coverts are white; legs, toes and webs coral-red. 
With the exception, before mentioned, of the black 
markings on the wing,* the young birds of the year 
appear to be so like the Common Tern as to require 
no separate description, the only other reliable 
difference being the shortness of the tarsus. 
The eggs are very much like those of the Common 
Tern, both in shape, colour and markings, but are 
always smaller.t Meyer’s coloured picture, how- 
ever, makes the ground colour darker and more 
dingy. 
Lesser TERN, Sterna minuta. This pretty little 
‘L'ern occurs occasionally in our county as a spring 
and autumn visitor, both on the coast and inland, 
for one of my specimens was shot as far inland as 
‘Taunton, while flying up and down by the river, in a 
place called Priory Fields, close by that town. 
Although only an occasional visitor to our county, 
* I cannot help thinking that this is a distinction, as 
the bird without the markings was shot in October, at the 
same time of year as the other six, and therefore was 
probably of the same age and in the same comparative state 
of plumage. 
+ Yarrell, vol. iii., p. 515. 
