500 LARID.E. 



The adult bird in summer has the bill black, the tip 

 yellowish- white ; the irides hazel ; all the parts of the 

 head above the eyes black ; the feathers on the occiput 

 elongated, forming a loose plume which ends in a point ; 

 cheeks, sides, and bottom of the neck behind white ; back 

 and wings ash-grey, the ends of the tertials almost white ; 

 the longest primary slate-grey, with a strong and broad 

 white shaft, the next two or three primaries each a little 

 lighter in colour than the first, and diminishing in colour 

 in succession till they become of the same tint as the wing- 

 coverts ; the tail white and forked ; chin, throat, neck in 

 front, breast, and all the under surface of the body pure 

 white; legs, toes, and their membranes black, claws 

 curved and black. The whole length of the bird, from the 

 point of the beak to the end of the longest tail-feather 

 fifteen inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the 

 longest quill-feather eleven inches; the first quill-feather 

 the longest in the wing. 



A young bird of the year killed on the 10th of August 

 is about ten inches in length ; the upper mandible dark 

 brown, the under one pale brown at the base; forehead 

 greyish white, top of the head and the occiput black ; back 

 and smaller wing-coverts ash-grey, varied with pale brown ; 

 greater coverts ash-grey, quill-feathers bluish-grey, the 

 inner margins white, the outside quill -feather almost black, 

 except the shaft which is white ; tail-feathers varied 

 with ash-grey and brown ; legs, toes, and membranes dark 

 brown. 



The young bird figured in the illustration has the head 

 mottled with black and white ; the back, wing-coverts and 

 tail-feathers varied with angular lines of black ; in this 

 state as to plumage it is the striated Tern of some authors. 



