576 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



others are lighter, and all have a portion of the inner 

 web white ; the wing is much pointed, like the other 

 Terns, the first quill being the longest; the second- 

 aries are the same colour as the wing- coverts, but 

 tipped with white ; all the under parts are white ; 

 legs, toes and webs orange-yellow. One specimen in 

 my collection, shot in August, has the top of the 

 head much mottled with white. The young birds of 

 the year, according to Yarrell, have the point of the 

 bill dark brown, the base pale brown ; the forehead 

 and crown mottled with dusky brown and greyish 

 white, more uniform in colour on the nape and 

 darker; back, wing-coverts and tertials ash-grey, 

 margined with dusky black; primaries slate-grey, 

 the margins of the inner webs white ; secondaries 

 ash-grey; tail-feathers spotted with dusky grey to- 

 wards the ends ; chin, sides of the neck, breast, and 

 all the under surface, white ; legs pale brown. 



The eggs are much the same shape as those of the 

 Common Tern, but smaller in proportion to the size 

 of the bird ; " of a slate-colour, spotted and speckled 

 with ash-grey and dark chesnut-brown." * 



BLACK TERN, Sterna fissipes. The Black Tern 

 appears to me a more common visitor to our county, 

 both to the coast and inland, than either of the other 

 species : its occurrences are always in the spring 

 and autumn, on its way to and from its breeding 



* Yarrell, vol. iii., p. 525. 



