186 BRITISH BIRDS’ EGGS. 
Famity LARIDA. 
Sus-ramiry STERNINAL. 
COMMON TERN. 
STERNA FLUVIATILIS, Nawm. 
Pl. XXXIL., figs. 1, 2. 
Geogr. distr.—Europe generally, Asia Minor, probably generally in 
India as far as China, but rare in Central and Southern India; it has 
been found on the shores of the Red Sea, and, in America, in Labrador 
and Texas. 
Food.—Fish, Crustacea, and insects. 
Nest.—None. 
Position in which eggs are deposited.—On flat, sandy or shingly 
shores, on mud banks or hillocks covered with short grass ; sometimes 
near inland lakes. 
Number of eggs.—3-4; usually 3. 
Time of nidification.—V-VII. 
As the eggs of the Common and Arctic Terns exhibit 
similar variations, so that the most that can be said to 
distinguish them is that those of the Common Tern are, as 
a rule, a little larger, and perhaps more frequently exhibit 
richly coloured varieties than those of Sterna macrura, it is 
important to be able to distinguish the two birds, which, 
though very similar, differ as follows :—The present species 
has a longer and stouter bill, of a red colour with a black 
tip ; the black cap extends a little further and is of a more 
pointed form, the tail is longer than the closed wings, 
the under parts are white, and the tarsus is longer: in the 
Arctic Tern, on the other hand, the bill is entirely red in 
old birds, the black cap is of a more rounded form, the tail 
is not longer than the closed wings, and the under parts 
are greyish. 
Mr. Cecil Smith says that Common Terns, ‘“‘ wherever 
their breeding station is, do not appear to trouble them- 
selves much with making a nest, the egos being placed in 
a hollow on the bare ground, or occasionally amongst the 
pebbles on the beach just above high water mark, without 
any hollow being made for them; occasionally also they 
are placed in hollows in the sand caused by drift sea-weed. 
The nests—if nests they can be called—are sometimes 
made in marshy places or on the borders of inland lakes.” 
—(‘ Birds of Somersetshire,’ pp. 568-9.) 
