270 WHITE SEA-BIRDS. 



Nest. — A depression in sand, shingle, or scanty 

 lierbage, with or without a few bits of dead vegeta- 

 tion as lining. 



Just as the Common Tern is more plentiful on 



our southern coasts, thinning out northwards, so tlie 



Arctic Tern preponderates about the Scotch shores, 



reaching its most southerly breeding station in the 



Fame Islands. In form, flight, and cry, in its habit 



of diving for fish, and in its breeding habits, it is 



for any but a practised eye and ear indistinguishable 



from the Common Tern. Attention must therefore be 



directed to the plain blood-red bill, lacking the black 



tip of the Common Tern, and to the under parts, 



which are of a pale pearl -gray resembling that of 



the back. 



COMMON TERN— 14i inches ; bill red, tipped black ; legs 

 coral-red ; under parts -white. 



ROSEATE TERN— loi inches ; bill black, orange at base ; 

 legs vermilion ; under parts tinged with rose-colour ; 

 white collar round hind-neck. 



SANDWICH TERN— 16 inches ; bill and feet black. 



LTTTLE TERN— 8J inches. Our smallest Tern ; bill yellow ; 

 legs and feet orange. 



ROSEATE TERN.— Form, like Common Tern 

 (plate 114). 15^ inches. Head capped with black; 

 face, sides of neck, and a collar round the hind- 

 neck white ; back and wings delicate pearl-gray, 

 paler on the rump and tail ; outer feathers of tail 

 white ; under parts white, suffused with delicate 

 pink ; bill black, orange-red at- base ; legs and feet 

 vermilion. Summer migrant. 



