STERNA HIBUNDO LINN. 

 26. Common Tern. (70) 



Bill, red, blackening on the terminal third, the very point usually light ; 

 feet, coral red ; mantle, pearly grayish-blue ; primary shafts white, except at the 

 end ; below white, washed with pale pearly plumbeous blanching on throat and 

 lower belly; tail mostly white, the outer web of the outer feather darker than 

 inner web of the same. Length of male, 14i (13-16) ; extent, 31 (29-32) ; wing, 

 10| (9f-llf); tail, 6 (5-7); tarsus, f (-); bill, 1J-H; whole foot, averaging If; 

 female rather less, averaging toward these minima; young birds may show a 

 little smaller, in length of tail particularly, and so of total length ; length, 12 or 

 more; wing, 9 or more; tail, 4 or more; bill, 1 or more. In winter this 

 species does not appear to lose the black-cap, contrary to a nearly universal 

 rule. Young : Bill mostly dusky, but much of the under mandible yellowish ; 

 feet simply yellowish ; cap more or less defective ; back and wings patched and 

 barred with gray and light brown, the bluish showing imperfectly if at all, but 

 this color shading much of the tail ; usually a blackish bar along the lesser 

 coverts, and several tail feathers dusky on. the outer web ; below, pure white, or 

 with very little plumbeous shade. 



HAB. Greater part of northern hemisphere and Africa. In North America 

 chiefly confined to the Eastern Province, breeding from the Arctic coast, some- 

 what irregularly, to Florida and Texas, and wintering farther south. 



Eggs, two or three, deposited in a hollow in the sand, light brown, tinged 

 with green and blotched with dark brown and lilac of various shades. 



