2280 PLOVERS, SANDPIPERS, SNIPE, J AC AN AS, GULLS 



are placed on the firmer hummocks of bog in the middle of shallow parts. The 

 eggs are three in number, of various shades of ochreous clay, olive brown, or olive 

 green, blotched with dark brown, especially at the larger end. The food of this 

 tern consists chiefly of beetles and dragon flies, with some small fish; it is also very 

 partial to leeches." 



The true terns, of which the common tern {Sterna fluviatilis} is the typical 

 form, differ from the marsh terns and their allies by the distinctly-pointed outer tail 

 feathers, while they are further characterized by the shortness of the metatarsus, 

 the moderately-elongated tail, and the compressed and slender beak. With two ex- 

 ceptions, these terns have the crown of the head black; while, as a rule, the under 

 parts are white or gray, although in the Oriental black-bellied tern (S. melano- 

 gaster) they are black. The common species, as well as the Arctic (5. macrura), 



roseate (S. dougalli), and Sand- 

 wich tern (S. cantiana) art large- 

 sized forms belonging to a group 

 of the genus in which the fore- 

 head is black to the culmen of the 

 beak, whereas the sooty tern (S. 

 fuliginosa) is the British repre- 

 sentative of another group in 

 which the front of the forehead is 

 white in the adult plumage. From 

 all the above the lesser tern (S. 

 minuta), together with several 

 other species, may be distin- 

 guished by its inferior dimensions, 

 the length of the wing being less 

 than eight inches, whereas in the 

 other groups it varies from nine 

 and one-half to twelve inches. 



The broad-billed tern (S. eurygnatha), of which the head is figured on p 2279, is 

 an inhabitant of the Atlantic coast of America, from South Brazil to the islalid of 

 Trinidad, and is represented by a closely-allied species on the Pacific coast of this 

 continent. 



As an essentially tropical genus of the subfamily, brief mention 

 must be made of the noddies, typically represented by Anous stolidus. 

 These birds belong to a group of the subfamily, differing from the one including 

 the last two by the graduated tail, in which the feathers are pointed, and the outer- 

 most shorter than the next pair. As a genus, the noddies are characterized by the 

 short middle toe, the strong decurved beak, and by the fourth pair of tail feathers, 

 counting from the outer side, exceeding all the others in length. The common 

 noddy appears to be generally distributed throughout the Tropics, one of its best- 

 known breeding haunts being the Tortuga islands, off Florida: Its general color is 

 dark; but, like the allied species, it has a light gray patch on the crown of the head 

 and forehead. 



COMMON TERN. 



Noddies 



