42 GULL-BILLED TERN. 



The eggs are two, three, or four in number, of a pale, as 

 also of a dull greenish or yellowish olive-colour, marked and 

 spotted with pale grey, reddish brown of two shades, and 

 olive brown. 



Male; length, one foot three inches and a half; bill, strong 

 and black, with a projecting angle, as in the Gull tribe; a 

 white streak runs back from it to the eye; iris, dark reddish 

 brown; before the eye there is in winter a greyish black spot, 

 and another towards the hinder part of the side of the head; 

 forehead, head on the crown and back, neck on the back, 

 and nape, silky black; afterwards a few of the feathers become 

 edged with white, the shafts being the same, and so gradually 

 more and more, till the former colour is entirely lost in the 

 winter, except a few dusky dots behind the eyes; the feathers 

 are rather elongated; chin, throat, and breast, white; back, 

 dark 'bluish grey. 



The wings are two feet ten inches in extent; they reach 

 more than two inches beyond the end of the tail; greater 

 and lesser wing coverts, dark bluish grey; of the primaries, 

 the first is dark hoary grey, the others lighter; their tips 

 and half of the inner webs next to the shafts, grey, darkest 

 at the tips of the first five nearly black, less dark in winter; 

 the shafts white; secondaries and tertiaries, dark bluish grey; 

 greater and lesser under wing coverts, white. Tail, pale bluish 

 grey; the shafts of the feathers white, as is the outer feather 

 on each side; upper tail coverts, pale bluish grey; under tail 

 coverts, white; legs and toes, reddish black; the hind toe is 

 lengthened; the claws are long and straight; webs, blackish 

 red. 



The female is like the male. 



The young are in the earlier stage mottled with brownish 

 gr'ey. In the first year the bill is bluish black; head on the 

 crown, dull white, varied with pale brown and dusky streaks; 

 a spot of greyish black behind the eye; neck and nape, white; 

 chin, throat, and breast, white; back, dull orange brown, 

 spotted with darker brown. Greater and lesser wing coverts, 

 grey, tipped with pale dull orange brown; primaries, grey; 

 tertiaries, dull orange brown, spotted with darker brown; 

 greater and lesser under wing coverts, white. Tail, with not 

 much grey; legs and toes, black. 



The engraving is from a drawing by John Gatcombe, Esq., 

 of Plymouth. 



