648 COMMON TERN. 
breed in most seasons. In Ireland it is the more plentiful bird in 
the south, while it appears to rival the Arctic Tern in the north, and 
it frequently nests by the margin of fresh water. It usually reaches 
England about the end of April, and the autumnal migration lasts 
from August to October, while on passage this Tern may often be 
observed on rivers and inland waters, even in London. 
During the warmer months this species is widely distributed on 
the coasts, rivers and lakes of Europe, from Norway to the Medi- 
terranean, Black and Caspian Seas ; as well as in North Africa, and 
westward to the islands of the Atlantic. Across that ocean it breeds 
abundantly in North America from Labrador to Texas, though 
scarcely known on the Pacific coast ; while it has been obtained at 
Bahia, Brazil, in winter. At that season it can be traced down the 
west side of Africa to Cape Colony, and in Asia to India, Ceylon 
and the Malay Peninsula; it is also found in summer across the 
temperate regions of Asia; but birds from the area between the 
Caspian and the elevated lakes of Kashmir, Tibet and Southern 
Siberia have a more vinaceous tint on the under-parts, with smaller 
bills and feet than the strictly maritime examples. 
The eggs, 3 in number, are laid on sand, shingle, dry wrack or 
short herbage, a few crossed bents being occasionally added ; they 
vary in colour from dull grey to stone-buff, blotched with bluish-ash 
and dark brown: measurements 1°7 by 1'1 in. Exceptionally eggs 
have been found by May 15th, but incubation hardly becomes 
general until the early part of June. On the approach of an intruder 
the parents utter a sharp pzrre or Azk-kik, and when their young are 
hatched they will often skim over the spot and drop small fish close 
to the nestlings, whose mottled colour renders them almost indis- 
tinguishable from the surrounding shingle. The food consists of 
young coal-fish, sand-eels, shrimps and other crustaceans. 
The adult in summer has the bill orange-red, with a horn-coloured 
tip ; head and nape black ; mantle dark pearl-grey ; rump whitish ; 
tail-feathers white, with grey outer webs, those of the streamers 
being darkest ; breast and belly pale vinaceous-grey ; legs and feet 
coral-red. In winter the forehead is sprinkled with white, the 
under-parts are whiter, and the colours of the bill and feet are 
duller. Length 14°25 in. (bill 1°7, tail 6°5), wing 10°5 in. The 
young bird has the crown and nape streaked with blackish-brown ; 
mantle with ash-brown bars, which gradually disappear, till only a 
dark band along the carpal joint remains ; tail-feathers grey on their 
outer webs ; under-surface white ; bill, legs and feet reddish-yellow, 
turning nearly black in winter. 
