BLACK TERN. 521 



tail-coverts pale grey ; tail-feathers slate-grey, the outside 

 feathers on each side shorter and more rounded than in the 

 adult; breast, belly, and all the under surface of the body 

 and wings white. An example killed at Malaga on the 2nd 

 of August had the breast and under parts suffused with a 

 rosy tint. 



Before leaving this country the plumage on the upper 

 surface of the body in the young bird loses the brown colour, 

 becoming of a more uniform slate-grey, but clouded with 

 dark lead-grey. By the following spring few signs of imma- 

 turity remain excepting a darkish line along the carpals ; 

 and at that season some dark feathers are assumed on the 

 under parts, but the full nuptial dress is not acquired until 

 the second spring, when the bird is ready to breed. The 

 degree of darkness on the under parts depends upon the age 

 of the individual. 



In the nestling the down of the upper parts is of a 

 warm reddish-buff ; forehead ruddy-brown ; crown, back, and 

 shoulders streaked with black ; a small white spot on the 

 chin ; throat, and lower part of cheeks, sooty-brown ; rest 

 of the lower parts brownish-buff in the newly-hatched bird, 

 afterwards white, inclining to buff on the flanks. 



VOL. III. 3 X 



