272 WHITE SEA-BIRDS. 



spotted and heavily blotched with brown and pale 

 gray ; 2'0 >< 1'5 inches (plate 134). 



Nest. — A hollow in the sand, with a few bits of 

 dead grass for lining. 



Like all our Terns, the Sandwich Tern is a summer 

 visitor, its principal breeding station being the Fame 

 Islands. It is scarcely to be distinguished from our 

 other larger Terns unless the black bill and feet be 

 noted, being in form and general appearance much 

 as they, though the flight is rather more forceful, 

 and one of its notes is likened by Seebohm to the 

 syllables ' Skerr-rek.' It has, besides, the scream 

 more or less similar in all our Terns, the vowel- 

 sound in which is ee, coupled with a strong r, the 

 rea in the word scream well illustrating the com- 

 bination. As usual with Terns, the Sandwich Tern 

 nests in colonies of many birds, separately or in 

 association with other species, placing its eggs in 

 a hollow on shingle or in a gravel-lined hollow among 

 low rocks. 



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



coral-red ; under parts white. 

 ARCTIC TERN— 14i inches ; bill plain blood-red ; feet red ; 



under parts pale pearl-gray. 



ROSEATE TERN— 15i inches ; bill black, orange at base ; 



legs vermilion ; white collar round hind-neck. 

 LITTLE TERN— 8i inches ; our smallest Tern ; bill yellow, 



tipped black ; legs and feet orange. 



LITTLE TERN.— Plate 114. 8| inches. Head 

 capped with black, but forehead white ; a black line 



