86 ATICTTC TERN. 



The eggs are two or three in number, rarely four; they 

 are subject to almost endless variety, the ground colour being 

 variously white, green, dull green, brown, pale blue, and pale 

 yellow, spotted with grey and dark reddish brown. They 

 are usually laid the beginning of June. The period of incu- 

 bation is about fifteen or sixteen days. 



Male; length, one foot three inches; bill, coral red, with 

 sometimes a little blackish red at the tip: head on the sides 

 below the eyes, white; forehead, crown, and neck on the back, 

 deep black, ending in a rather rounded peak; nape, white. 

 Chin, white; throat, pale grey; breast, grey; back, rather dark 

 grey above, below white. The wings, when closed, reach to 

 the end of the tail; greater and lesser wing coverts, grey; of 

 the primaries, the first has the outer web dark leaden grey, 

 nearly black, except the tip, which is grey; the others have 

 the outer webs and half of the inner dark: grey, the shafts 

 white, the tips grey. The tail, deeply forked, has the two 

 longest feathers on each side dark grey on the outer webs, 

 the others white; upper tail coverts, white; under tail coverts, 

 pale bluish grey. Legs, short, feathered to the knee joint, 

 and, as the toes, deep red; claws, dusky black; webs, deep 

 red. 



The female is a little less than the male, and the black 

 extends rather farther down the nape. 



The young are at first covered with yellowish grey down, 

 mottled with darker. In their first year, they have the bill 

 red, the ridge of the upper mandible and the tip dull brown. 

 Forehead, dull white; crown, a mixture of black and white, 

 or grey; back of the head, neck on the back, and nape, dusky 

 greyish black; the sides of the head below the eyes dull white; 

 chin, throat, and breast, dull white. Back, bluish grey, mottled 

 with crescent-shaped bars of brownish black on each feather, 

 the tips pale yellowish grey; greater and lesser wing coverts, 

 bluish grey, barred with crescent-shaped marks on the feathers 

 of dusky black, and tipped with white; of the primaries, the 

 first is leaden grey on the outer web, the others bluish grey, 

 the inner webs of all nearly white; secondaries, dull bluish 

 grey, barred with dusky black of a crescent-shaped form on 

 each feather, and tipped with white; tertiaries, tipped with 

 white; greater and lesser under wing coverts, white. The tail 

 has the outer webs of the three long feathers on each side 

 slate grey; upper tail coverts, white; legs and toes, pale 

 orange red; claws, dusky; webs, pale orange red. 



