4 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



and longer than the rest, more than three-fourths the length of the wing ; the 

 tarsus shorter than the length of the middle toe and claw, and the bill very stout. 



8. — Noenia, embracing one aberrant species, the Inca Tern, from the coasts of 

 Peru and Chili ; with conspicuous gape-plumes ; the bill strong and decurved ; 

 the tail slightly forked, with its two outer feathers of about equal length. 



9. — Procehterna, containing two species confined to the Western Pacific, with 

 grey plumage ; the tail graduated and its two outer feathers shorter than the 

 inner pair next to them, which are the longest in the tail ; the foot long, its 

 middle toe and claw exceeding in length the ridge of the beak. 



10. — Micranous embracing three tropical species, with the bill long and slender ; 

 the tail graduated, with its third pair of feathers from the outside longer than 

 the rest. 



11. — Gygis, containing two species, almost restricted to the coral islands of 

 the southern hemisphere, with bill stout and pointed, broad at the base and 

 tapering upwards in front; tail graduated; toes long and slender, with deeply 

 incised webs, the midmost toe being specially long. These beautiful pure white 

 birds lay their single white egg in the clefts between the leaflets of the cocoanut 

 palms, on the cavity of a branch of a tree, on a flat board, or " anywhere where 

 it will lie " as Mr. Saunders well observes. 



The Terns may be distinguished from the Gulls by their straighter and more 

 slender bill, with mandibles of equal length, and their more or less forked tail. 

 They are found in all parts of the globe, some nesting by the sea-shore, others 

 in marshes, or by the sandy banks of rivers, not infrequently thousands of miles 

 inland. 



From their forked tail, long pointed wings, swift flight, and graceful action 

 while feeding from the surface of the water, they have derived, doubtless, the very 

 appropriate name of Sea- Swallows,- by which they are generally known. 



Terns, as has been stated above, are able to run about very soon after 

 emerging from the egg, and are, at that stage of their existence, covered with 

 down. In a few weeks this cradle covering is exchanged for their first immature 

 — a more or less barred and mottled with blackish- brown — plumage, which, from 

 the first autumn through the next spring and summer, loses (by fading of the 

 colour and wearing of the feathers) more and more of the bars and mottlings, while 

 during the same period acquiring a few dark feathers in the head, and will be 

 replaced in the following autumn by the bird's first winter plumage, and finally 

 in its second spring by its first nuptial dress. Every succeeding year the summer 

 (or breeding) plumage, on moulting at the end of July or beginning of August, 

 changes into a less ornate, or winter garb, thus completing the cycle of the Tern's 



