62 THE TERNS 



of the shaft runs a band of grey, much narrower than in the common-tern, 

 leaving the rest of the web white save near the tip, where it is grey. The 

 under parts are of a dark grey save the throat and under tail-coverts, which are 

 white. After the autumn moult the black of the fore-part of the crown becomes 

 intermixed with white, and the under parts are paler. The fledgling resembles 

 the young of the common-tern at the same age, and can be distinguished 

 therefrom only by the dark grey colour of the outer tail feathers. After the 

 autumn moult the young resemble the adults in winter, having the forehead and 

 crown nearly white, but a dark grey band on the upper wing-coverts, more grey 

 on the outer webs of the tail feathers, and the under parts white. The young in 

 down, like those of the common species, show variation in their coloration. The 

 ground-colour of the upper parts is (1) either creamy white, white, or greyish, or (2) 

 shades of buff. In both the markings are black, and the under parts white with a 

 greyish tint about the flanks and vent. The coloration of the throat varies in the 

 same type, and no doubt changes with growth. It is usually black or dusky. The 

 legs and beak vary from red to flesh colour. The beak has a dusky tip, which 

 is lost later (N. F. Ticehurst in British Birds, iii. 200 ; F. B. Kirkman, in litt. 

 Observations based on live specimens), [w. p. p.] 



2. Distribution. In Great Britain this is a more northerly breeding bird 

 than the common-tern, and does not nest south of the Fames on the east coast of 

 England, nor along our southern shores. There was, however, formerly a large 

 colony on the Scillies, but at the present time the southern limit of this species on 

 the Welsh coast appears to be the Skerries and the Anglesey coast. On the western 

 coast and islands of Scotland it is very plentiful locally, and is also common in the 

 Shetlands and Orkneys, while it is the predominant species in Ireland, many large 

 colonies existing on marine islands. On the whole it is less of a fresh- water haunting 

 species than the common-tern, but colonies are known on Loughs Corrib, Mask, and 

 Carra in Ireland, as well as in the Orkneys. Outside the British Isles it breeds in 

 the Faeroes, Iceland, Franz Josef Land, Spitzbergen, Scandinavia from Bergen 

 northward along the Norwegian coast to Lapland ; Lake Onega, the lower Dwina 

 and Petchora, in the Baltic on the coasts of Finland, Esthonia, and Sweden ; Den- 

 mark, the N. Frisian Isles, while recently colonies have been discovered in Holland. 

 In Asia it is found along the N. Siberian coast and the main river valleys east to the 

 Kolyma Delta, Chukchiland, and the Anadyr and Commander Isles, and, according 

 to Radde, also in Baikalia, while in N. America it breeds in Greenland to over 82 N., 

 the shores of the Arctic Ocean, and the Atlantic coast south to Massachusetts. The 

 winter range of this species in Africa extends to Cape Colony and even as far south 



