340 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



white, strongly tinted with a delicate rose-colour ; 

 legs, toes, and their membranes red.' The 

 plumage of the young bird varies in some parti- 

 culars, * the bill being orange-yellow at the base, 

 the back and wing coverts being of a bluish- 

 gray barred with dark gray, the feathers tipped 

 with yellowish- white.' It is to be regretted that 

 this bird is gradually becoming more scarce ; 

 Saunders attributes this as due in a great measure 

 to * the increase of the larger stronger-billed com- 

 mon tern . . . three colonies of the roseate tern 

 having ' (according to his informant, Dr. Bureau) 

 * successively given way on the coast of Brittany 

 in the course of a few years.' According to the 

 same authority, this tern arrives late in May, and 

 leaves earlier than the other terns. 



Writing of the Arctic tern, Yarrell states that 

 it was at one time confounded with the common 

 tern, the main differences (to which he draws 

 attention) existing in the length of the bill being 

 a quarter of an inch shorter than that of the 

 common tern, the legs being orange-red, and the 

 under surface of the body a dark gray. Colonel 

 Irby thus further describes the plumage of this 

 tern : ' Crown black ; below as gray as the back 

 . . . bill and legs coral-red. Breeds much further 

 North than the common tern, and as far South 

 as the Humber in Great Britain, and Kerry in 

 Ireland.' It is said to be the only tern which is 

 known to nest in the Shetland Isles. It is, during 

 migration, to be found throughout the greater 



