( 350 ) 



vation made loosely in it, and they are hatched chiefly by the 

 warmth of the sun, the female seldom sitting on them except during 

 the night, or in stormy weather. Here we again meet with a very 

 striking provision in the economy of Nature, [which I shall not at- 

 tempt to define,] as it is certain that this apparent neglect does not 

 arise from a wanton recklessness in regard to perpetuating their 

 kind ; for at such times their excursions are confined to the neigh- 

 borhood of their nests, which, though seemingly abandoned, are 

 watched with all the parental solicitude for which the feathered 

 race are so proverbial. The eggs are usually three. I have fre- 

 quently found two — sometimes one — and have sometimes found as 

 many as five in one nest. From these very unequal numbers, it 

 appears as if they dropped their eggs indiscriminately about upon 

 the sand ; but of this unusual procedure I have no farther proof. 



The eggs of the Common Tern are about one inch and three 

 quarters long, and about one and a half wide, of a pale dull brown, 

 tinged with green, and blotched with blackish-brown. 



The Common Tern is familiar to our bay-gunners, as well as to 

 many sportsmen, (who never look for generic distinctions, 1 ) by the 

 name of " Summer Gull." On the coast of Massachusetts, it is 

 termed " Mackerel Gull." 



STERNA MINUTA— LINN. 



LEAST TERN. 



Sterna minuta, Wils. Amer. Orn. 



Sterna ininuta, Bonap. Syn. 



Silvery Tern, Sterna argentea, Nutt. Man. 



Least Tern, Sterna minuta, Wils. Amer. Orn. 



Specific Character — Bill yellowish-red, toward the point black, in 

 some specimens wholly black ; from the frontlet feathers to the 

 point one inch and an eighth, tarsi five eighths. 



Adult male with the bill reddish-yellow ; forehead white ; hind 

 head black — a spot of the same color before the eye ; upper parts 

 pale bluish-gray ; tail pale ash and forked ; first three primary 

 quills, with their outer webs, black — a portion of their inner webs 

 the same color, margined with white, of Avhich color is the entire 

 lower plumage ; legs and feet reddish-yellow. Young, in summer, 



