THE ROSEATE TERN 277 
abundant. A large colony inhabits the Farne Islands. They breed 
as far north as the Findhorn. Upon this coast it is called par 
excellence ‘The Tern’, all the other species passing under the general 
name of ‘Sea Swallows’. Its habits are so like those of the 
Common Tern, to be described hereafter, that, to avoid repetition, 
I purposely omit all account of its mode of fishing, and content 
myself with quoting, on the authority of Audubon and Meyer, 
incidents in its biography which I have not noticed in the Common 
Tern. The former author says: ‘Its cries are sharp, grating, 
and loud enough to be heard at the distance of half a mile. They 
are repeated at intervals while it is travelling, and kept up inces- 
santly when one intrudes upon it in its breeding-ground, on which 
occasion it sails and dashes over your head, chiding you with angry 
notes, more disagreeable than pleasant to your ear.’ Meyer, writing 
of the same bird, says: ‘The Sandwich Tern is observed to be 
particularly fond of settling on sunken rocks where the waves 
run high, and the surf is heavy: this being a peculiar fancy belong- 
ing to this species, it is sometimes called by the name of Surf Tern.’ 
THE ROSEATE TERN 
STERNA DOUGALLI 
Bill black, red at the base; feet orange, claws small, black; tarsus three- 
quarters of an inch long; tail much forked, much longer than the wings ; 
upper part of the head and nape black; rest of the upper plumage pale 
ash-grey; tail white, the outer feathers very long and pointed; cheeks 
and under plumage white, tinged on the breast and belly with rose. 
Length fifteen to seventeen inches. Eggs yellowish stone-colour, spotted 
and speckled with ash-grey and brown. 
Or this Tern Dr. M’Dougall, its discoverer, says, ‘It is of light 
and very elegant figure, differing from the Common Tern in the 
size, length, colour, and curvature of the bill ; in the comparative 
shortness of the wing in proportion to the tail, in the purity of the 
whiteness of the tail, and the peculiar conformation and extra- 
ordinary length of the lateral feathers. It also differs from that 
bird in the hazel-colour and size of the legs and feet.’ 
Roseate Terns have been discovered on several parts of the coast, 
principally in the north, as in the mouth of the Clyde, Lancashire 
and the Farne Islands. They associate with the Common Terns, but 
are far less numerous. Selby says, ‘the old birds are easily recog- 
nized amidst hundreds of the other species by their peculiar and 
buoyant flight, long tail, and note, which may be expressed by the 
word crake, uttered in a hoarse grating key.’ They rarely nest in 
Great Britain, 
