STERXA HIKUXDO Lixx. 



-'6. Common Tern. ((0) 



Bill, leil, blackening i>n the terminal third, the very point usually light : 

 feet, coral red ; mantle, pearly grayish-ljlue ; primary shafts white, except at the 

 end; below white, M'ashed with pale pearly plnmbeoiis ))lanching on throat and 

 lower belly; tail mostly white, the oiitu- web of the outer feather darker than 

 inner web of the same. Length of male, 14A (13-11)); extent, 31 (29-32) ; wing, 

 104 (9J-11J); tail, 5 (.'i-Tl; tar-stis. i il,-i): bill. ^-U: whole foot, averaging 1 j ; 

 female rather less, averaging toward tliese minima; young birds ma^" show a 

 little smaller, in length of tail jjarticularly, and so of total length: length. 12 or 

 more; wing, 9 or more; tail, 4 or more; liill. li oi' more. In winter this 

 .species does not appear to lose the black-cap. c<»ntrary to a nearlv universal 

 rule. YoHiiij : — Bill mostly dusky, but much of the under mandible yellowish; 

 feet simplj' yellowish ; cap more or less defective ; back and h ings patched and 

 barred with gray and light brown, the l)luisli showing impeifectly if at all, but 

 this color shading much of the tail ; usually a blackish bar along the lesser 

 coverts, and several tail feathers dusky on the oni< ,• A\-eb ; belo^^■. ]niie white, or 

 with very little plumbeoits shade. 



H.\E. — Greater part of northern hemisphere and .Africa. In Xorth America 

 chiefly confined to the Eastern Province, breeding from the Arctic coast, some- 

 what irregularly, to Florida and Texas, and wintering farther south. 



Eggs, two or three, deposited in a hollow in the sand, light brown, tinged 

 with green and blotched with dark brown and lilac of various shades. 



