2 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



beaks, long sharp wings, indicative of rapid and powerful flight, short legs, small 

 feet and fully (instead of, as in the Plovers, partially) webbed toes. The tarsus 

 is scutellated in front and reticulated behind. They possess an after shaft (or 

 second smaller feather branching from the inner surface of the quill) to the body 

 feathers ; twelve tail feathers ; one minute, concealed, and ten large primaries , and 

 in the secondaries (or quills on the ulna or cubitus] a blank occurs between the 

 fourth and sixth feathers (although the fifth upper and under coverts are present), 

 an unexplained feature, from which those birds exhibiting it have been designated 

 Aquinto cubital. The young on emerging from the egg are covered with down, 

 and able to run about when a few hours old. The Gavise rarely lay more than 

 three eggs, " spotted or scrolled with dark colours on a white, buff, or ochraceous 

 ground " (Saunders). 



The Terns, Gulls, and Skuas are distributed over all the seas of the globe, 

 and on most of the great inland lakes of its chief continents. As a rule they 

 assemble in vast crowds during the breeding season, innumerable nests being 

 frequently found within some restricted and favourite area selected by them as 

 their nursery for the year. 



Many of them are migratory, coming to this country in the spring, and after 

 breeding in the summer, returning in autumn to more genial quarters for the 

 winter. Many also that winter far south of our latitude, are mere birds of passage 

 at those seasons, their breeding places being still farther north than the British Isles. 



The Laridce are divided into three sub families : the Terns or Sea- Swallows 

 (Sternina), the true Gulls (Larince), and the Skimmers, Cut-waters, or Scissors- 

 bills, as they are variously named, (Rhynchopinee). The first two subfamilies are 

 abundantly represented in Great Britain ; but none of the Skimmers (of which 

 there are five species all belonging to the one genus Rhynchops) have even reached 

 our shores. They are chiefly temperate and sub-tropical birds (inhabiting Africa, 

 India, North and South America), remarkable for the peculiar form of the bill, 

 which consists of two sharp blades, the upper half being freely moveable, while 

 the lower and larger is vertically compressed to quite a thin plate. 



The Larida may be distinguished from the Stercorariidce (Skuas) by the absence 

 of a cere, or bare soft skin, at the base of the maxilla, and of the strong hook to the 

 beak, which are characters conspicuous in the Skuas. In the latter family the toes are 

 always much more fully webbed and the claws larger and sharper than among 

 the Gulls. Their breast bone also has only one notch in its broader margin 

 instead of two, as in the Gull's sternum. 



The Larida vary much at different seasons of the year in the colour of their 

 plumage some of them taking four to five years to attain maturity. 



