THE WHISKERED TERN. J ? 



breeding plumage, when they retired to the marshes of Huleh for ni din" cation 

 the only species in the country remaining to breed. " The Sea of Galilee," he 

 says, " is remarkable for the vast numbers of Grebes, Gulls and Terns which cover 

 its surface in winter and early spring, while after April not a solitary example of 

 a Natator can be detected. Well may birds swarm there, for the shoals of fishes 

 are almost incredible. Masses of fishes, covering an acre or two, may be seen with 

 their back fins above the water, looking, as they move slowly in serried ranks, 

 like the pattering of a heavy shower on the lake. Why all the birds disappear 

 in May can only be accounted for by the absence of any secure breeding places 

 near the lake, the shore being open, destitute of trees, marshes, or other cover, 

 and on the east side forming a long bare range of bleak hills which come almost 

 down to the water's edge." 



Dr. Sharpe gives the " prevailing ground colour of the eggs, as greenish- 

 grey, sometimes clay-colour, the markings being similar in character to 



those of the allied Terns, but rather more scattered and distinct, while in some 

 examples the spotting and scribbling is very minute, and the underlying grey 

 spots are more distinct than in eggs of H. lencoptera" 



The eggs vary in length from if to i? inch, by about i inch in diameter, 

 and are slightly larger than those of the two already described Marsh- Terns. 



The eggs are laid about the middle of May, and the young are hatched 

 towards the end of June. The nestlings are sandy-yellow on. the upper surface, 

 mottled, striped, or spotted with black ; beneath they are white, with the throat 

 sooty black. 



In its first plumage, as given by Mr. Saunders, the Whiskered Tern has the 

 forehead white ; the crown and nape of the neck blackish-brown ; the upper parts 

 pale grey ; the mantle mottled with brown and with warm cinnamon-brown edges 

 to the inner secondaries ; tail slightly mottled and edged with ash-brown ; the 

 under side white ; bill and feet reddish-brown. The larger size of the birds at this 

 stage distinguishes them from the young of H. leucoptera. 



Before the beginning of the following year the brown markings have become 

 greatly reduced, and after the spring, when a pigment change, or partial moult, 

 takes place, the forehead and crown are seen to be white, the rest of the head and 

 neck, and also the ear-coverts, greyish-black ; the back, shoulders and secondaries 

 slate- grey, strongly blotched with blackish-brown in the middle and tipped with 

 buff; the entire under side white; the tail feathers grey, margined with white; 

 the bill brown, red at the base, and the legs and feet reddish-brown. 



The first entire moult takes place in the second autumn, when the first winter 

 plumage of the bird is assumed, which is paler on the upper side than in the 



VOL. VI. D 



