574 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



outside feathers on each side have the outer webs 

 dark grey, the rest of the feathers white ; the chin is 

 white; the breast, belly and flanks are nearly the 

 same shade of gull-grey as the back ; the under tail- 

 coverts are white ; legs, toes and webs coral-red. 

 With the exception, before mentioned, of the black 

 markings on the wing,* the young birds of the year 

 appear to be so like the Common Tern as to require 

 no separate description, the only other reliable 

 difference being the shortness of the tarsus. 



The eggs are very much like those of the Common 

 Tern, both in shape, colour and markings, but are 

 always smaller. f Meyer's coloured picture, how- 

 ever, makes the ground colour darker and more 

 dingy. 



LESSER TERN, Sterna minuta. This pretty little 

 Tern occurs occasionally in our county as a spring 

 and autumn visitor, both on the coast and inland, 

 for one of my specimens was shot as far inland as 

 Taunton. while flying up and down by the river, in a 

 place called Priory Fields, close by that town. 

 Although only an occasional visitor to our county, 



* I cannot help thinking that this is a distinction, as 

 the bird without the markings was shot in October, at the 

 same time of year as the other six, and therefore was 

 probably of the same age and in the same comparative state 

 of plumage. 



f Yarrell, vol. iii., p. 515. 



