576 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
others are lighter, and all have a portion of the inner 
web white; the wing is much pointed, like the other 
Terns, the first quill being the longest; the second- 
aries are the same colour as the wing-coverts, but 
tipped with white; all the under parts are white; 
legs, toes and webs orange-yellow. One specimen in 
my collection, shot in August, has the top of the 
head much mottled with white. ‘The young birds of 
the year, according to Yarrell, have the point of the 
bill dark brown, the base pale brown; the forehead 
and crown mottled with dusky brown and greyish 
white, more uniform in colour on the nape and 
darker; back, wing-coverts and tertials ash-grey, 
margined with dusky black; primaries slate-grey, 
the margins of the inner webs white; secondaries 
ash-grey; tail-feathers spotted with dusky grey to- 
wards the ends; chin, sides of the neck, breast, and 
all the under surface, white; legs pale brown. 
The eggs are much the same shape as those of the 
Common Tern, but smaller in proportion to the size 
of the bird; “of a slate-colour, spotted and speckled 
with ash-grey and dark chesnut-brown.” * 
Buack Tern, Sterna fissupes. The Black Tern 
appears to me a more common yisitor to our county, 
both to the coast and inland, than either of the other 
Species: its occurrences are always in the spring 
and autumn, on its way to and from its breeding 
* Yarrell, vol. i., p. 5265. 
