NOTES. 169 



time that its back and tail were visible I could see that the 

 tail, tail-coverts and lower rump were pure white. 



As I am not aware that in any stage of its plumage the 

 Black Tern has the tail, tail-coverts and carpal joints white, 

 I think there can be no doubt that the bird was H. leucoptera. 



A. G. Leigh. 



NOTES ON BREEDING OF THE COMMON AND 

 SANDWICH TERNS. 



Having marked, together with my friend Mr. F. W. Smalley, 

 742 young of the Common Tern, and handled nearly, if not 

 quite, a thousand of them during July and August, perhaps a 

 few notes on these young birds may be of interest. 



The young of the Common Tern are dimorphic, in that 

 some have red and others yellow legs, while some are much 

 darker on the back than others. When hatched the}' have 

 very thick legs, which grow thinner as the birds grow larger, 

 until the extremely small tarsus of the adult is reached. 



Some of the young in down have a pure white tip to the 

 beak, of small extent, which disappears with the growth of 

 the feathers. The chief food of these young birds consists of 

 young herrings, but many small whiting were found, and also 

 a few young codling, lumpsuckers and long rough dabs, and 

 although the colony was bounded on one side by a river 

 famous for its Salmonidce, no trace of the young of these fish 

 was found at all on the ground. 



The chief food of the young Sandwich Terns was young 

 whiting, and that of the Black-headed Gulls almost entirely 

 sand-eels. I am indebted to Mr. Eagle Clarke, who kindly 

 corroborated my identification of the fish disgorged by the 

 young Terns. 



Many of the nests of the Common Tern contained clutches 

 of three eggs, and many also only a couple, and not a few a 

 single egs; only. These varied very much in colour, and 

 several blue and white eggs were seen, and one complete clutch 

 of three blue eggs spotted with small black spots at their 

 larger end. 



The Sandwich Terns arrive at their nesting place a month 

 before the Common species, the first pair of the former being 

 seen this year on March 29th, and of the latter on April 25th. 



On our first visit on June 20th, the Common Terns had 

 not finished laying, few nests containing more than two eggs 

 and a great many only one, so no young were seen. But on 

 this date the Sandwich Terns were nearly all hatched out, the 



