THE ROSEATE TERN. 409 



lesser tern, considerably larger in proportion in the wings, 

 but has the tarsi shorter. The bill is black, the irides 

 brown, and the feet blackish red. In the summer plumage, 

 the head, nape, chin, throat, and all the under part, is greyish 

 black, and the upper part deep ash colour, with the external 

 margins of the tail, but not the webs of any of the other 

 tail feathers, white. That is the breeding plumage, in which 

 the only distinction between the sexes is a white spot under 

 the chin in the male, which is wanting in the female. In 

 summer, the forehead, throat, and all the under part, fade to 

 white, and the ash colour on the back becomes pale. The 

 young are brown above, with pale margins to the feathers. 



The places of England where these birds chiefly nestle are 

 the rushy pools in the salt marshes. The nests are placed 

 in the reeds, or other tall herbage, close by the margin of 

 the water. The nest is formed of coarse withered leaves, 

 and the eggs are three or four in number, olive brown, 

 spotted with black. During the breeding time, the birds 

 keep chiefly to the marsh, beating over the pools and rivers 

 of water ; and, though they seldom retire far inland, they 

 do not resort to the sea till their broods can accompany 

 them ; after which, they are seldom seen till April or May, 

 when they are again in the marshes. 



THE ROSEATE TERN (Sterna Dougalii). 



The roseate tern belongs to a different character of locality 

 than most of those that have been noticed. With the ex- 

 ception of the lesser tern, they are all, to a considerable 

 extent, marsh birds, and even that resorts to shores not far 

 from the marshes. The marsh ones can be traced into the 

 eastern marshes by the lines of the rivers of Central Europe ; 

 and they do not spread themselves round the shores, or seem 

 peculiarly attached to the sea. 



The species under consideration appears to depend more 



