ROSEATE-TERN 99 



eggs of practically the same type. Curiously enough, although a 

 smaller bird than the common-tern, the roseate lays a slightly larger 

 and decidedly longer egg. The characters of the two have already 

 been described in the "Classified Notes'' and need not be repeated here, 

 while the nesting-sites are usually very different, the common-terns 

 frequently breeding in scratchings on the comparatively flat top of 

 the island and among the luxuriant vegetation, while almost every 

 roseate's egg is in some kind of crevice or recess or little cave on the 

 steeper rock face. Most of the eggs are laid on the shingly floor of 

 the recesses : here and there a few bits of dry and dead vegetable 

 matter may be found casually arranged, but practically no nest is 

 made. There are, of course, exceptions to these rules : thus Mr. Oswin 

 Lee found a nest with the unusual number of three eggs on the Culbin 

 Sands on May 20, 1887, which he ascribed to this species. The date is 

 exceptionally early, and the number of eggs suggests a possible con- 

 fusion with a common-tern's nest, especially as the latter were 

 breeding there, and the eggs were laid in a depression in the sand. 1 

 Many of the large colonies of this species in other countries also are 

 known to breed on sandy flats, 2 but here we are chiefly concerned with 

 the habits of the birds in our own islands. Mr. Oswin Lee gives some 

 interesting notes on the breeding-habits of these birds. He says that 

 the male is very attentive to the hen while she is sitting, and often 

 hovers in the air over her calling to her. He feeds her on the nest with 

 small fish, and twice saw one carry a large sand-eel to the sitting bird, 

 when they both devoured it, tearing it up and eating it in little 

 pieces. 3 There seems to be no record of the male taking part in 

 incubation, but naturally observations on this point are very scanty. 

 Roughly we may estimate the incubation period at about twenty days, 

 on the analogy of the two allied British species, but here, again, 

 accurate information is lacking. 



1 Cf. also Ootheca Wolleyana, ii. p. 301. 



2 Cf. The Auk, xii. p. 32 ; Whitaker, Birds of Tunisia, ii. pp. 346-7. 



3 O. A. J. Lee, Among British Birds in their Nesting-haunts, i. p. 38. 



