270 WHITE SEA-BIRDS. 



Nest. A depression in sand, shingle, or scanty 

 herbage, with or without a few bits of dead vegeta- 

 tion as lining. 



Just as the Common Tern is more plentiful on 

 our southern coasts, thinning out northwards, so the 

 Arctic Tern preponderates about the Scotch shores, 

 reaching its most southerly breeding station in the 

 Fame Islands. In form, flight, and cry, in its habit 

 of diving for fish, and in its breeding habits, it is 

 for any but a practised eye and ear indistinguishable 

 from the Common Tern. Attention must therefore be 

 directed to the plain blood-red bill, lacking the black 

 tip of the Common Tern, and to the under parts, 

 which are of a pale pearl -gray resembling that of 

 the back. 



COMMON TERN 14i inches ; bill red, tipped black ; legs 

 coral-red ; under parts white. 



ROSEATE TERN 15J inches ; bill black, orange at base ; 

 legs vermilion ; under parts tinged with rose-colour ; 

 white collar round hind-neck. 



SANDWICH TERN 16 inches ; bill and feet black. 



LITTLE TERN 8J inches. Our smallest Tern ; bill yellow ; 

 legs and feet orange. 



ROSEATE TERN. Form, like Common Tern 

 (plate 114). 15^ inches. Head capped with black ; 

 face, sides of neck, and a collar round the hind- 

 neck white ; back and wings delicate pearl-gray, 

 paler on the rump and tail ; outer feathers of tail 

 white ; under parts white, suffused with delicate 

 pink ; bill black, orange-red at base ; legs and feet 

 vermilion. Summer migrant. 



