410 BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



TERN, SANDWICH. 



(Sterna cantiaca.) 

 Order GAVLE ; Family LARID.E (GULLS). 



Description of Parent Birds. Length about 

 fifteen inches ; bill rather long, straight, slender, 

 and pointed ; black in colour, except at the tip, 

 which is primrose-yellow. Irides hazel. Crown of 

 the head and nape black ; the feathers at the 

 back of the head are rather long and form a loose, 

 pointed plume ; back pearl-grey ; wings very long, 

 pearl-grey in colour, except the longest quill-feathers, 

 which are rather darker ; tail white and much 

 forked; chin, throat, breast, belly, and vent white, 

 sometimes tinged with salmon pink ; legs, toes, 

 membranes, and claws black. 



The female is very similar to the male. 



Situation and Locality. On the ground, in a 

 slight hollow in the sand or pebbles on low rocky 

 islands. The principal colony in this country is 

 on the Fame Islands. Our full-page illustration is 

 from a photograph taken on a slight ridge of sand, 

 measuring about twenty by seven yards. The keepers 

 informed us that in 1892 they counted 210 Sand- 

 wich Terns' nests on the same ridge. When our 

 boat neared the Tern Island (Wamseys) the birds 

 (Sandwich, Arctic, and Common) rose in a perfect 

 cloud, and whirled round and round, for all the 

 world like a thick shower of snow played upon 

 by fickle gusts of wind. Small colonies breed at 

 Ravenglass, in Cumberland, and at various points 

 on the Scottish and Irish coasts. 



Materials. Generally none ; sometimes, a few 

 bits of dead herbage, and occasionally even a 

 liberal supply of dry grass is used. 



