LARIDJE. 579 



rest of the wing, nearly dusky grey ; the vent and 

 under tail-coverts are white ; the legs, toes and wehs 

 very dark reddish brown; the wehs are much in- 

 dented, and the toes project some way before them. 

 The adult bird before mentioned as having been 

 killed out of the flock at Burnham, in August, had 

 the fore part of the head and the neck very much 

 mottled with white ; in the full plumage these parts 

 are quite white. The young birds shot at the same 

 time had the bill nearly black ; the forehead, the 

 space between the bill and the eye, the fore part and 

 side of the neck, a collar at the back of the neck, the 

 breast, flanks, belly and all the under parts are white ; 

 the top of the head, nape and ear-coverts are black ; 

 the back and scapulars immediately behind the white 

 collar almost black, the rest smoky grey, each feather 

 margined with pale brown, palest towards the tips ; 

 the rump and tail-coverts light grey ; the wing dusky 

 on the shoulder ; both sets of wing-coverts smoky 

 grey, more or less margined with brown and tipped 

 with white ; the primary quills dusky at the points, 

 more inclining to grey towards the base ; the second- 

 aries are dark dusky grey; tertials the same, narrowly 

 margined with white ; tail-feathers darker grey than 

 the coverts, narrowly edged at the tips with white. 



The eggs are said to be of a dark greenish or red- 

 dish olive, blotched and spotted with two shades of 

 dark brown and very dark, nearly black : they are 

 rather larger than those of the Lesser Tern. 



3 D 2 



