SANDWICH TERN. 391 



three or four in number, for the reception of which a shallow 

 hole is scratched among the sea-campion, or other plants 

 that may happen to grow on the selected place. The eggs 

 arc two inches in length, by one inch five lines in breadth ; 

 of a yellowish stone colour ; thickly spotted with ash-grey, 

 orange-brown, and deep red-brown, but subject to consider- 

 able variation in the markings. As soon as the young birds 

 become tolerably fledged, but before they are altogether able 

 to fly, they frequently take to the water, swimming off to the 

 smaller rocks, where they continue to be fed by the parents 

 until capable of joining them in their fishing excursions. 

 The time of the arrival of the old birds is about the middle 

 of May ; incubation commences in the first week in June, 

 and nearly the whole have again taken their departure for 

 more southern latitudes by the end of September." Mr. 

 Macgillivi'ay, in his Manual, mentions having obtained this 

 species in the Frith of Forth, and it was seen by the natural 

 history party in Sutherlandshire, upon the Friths of Tongue 

 and Eribol. 



M. Nilsson says it is seen in the southern parts of Sweden 

 occasionally ; it is included among the birds of Germany, 

 and M. Temminck says it is abundant in North Holland. 

 It is found on the coast of France, and is said to breed on 

 some islets off Ushant ; it visits some of the lakes of Switzer- 

 land, is seen at Genoa, and goes eastward to Italy. It is 

 found in various parts of Africa, and specimens were in the 

 collection brought by Dr. Andrew Smith from the Cape of 

 Good Hope. 



Mr. Audubon, in his Birds of America, says the Sandwich 

 Tern is seen from Texas, during spring and summer, to the 

 Floridas, where it breeds in great numbers ; but is never ob- 

 served in any other part of the coast of America. Consider- 

 ed to be migratory. 



The adult bird in summer has the bill black, the tip 



