Terns 



insects which must be pursued and caught in mid-air. Fish it 

 by no means despises, only it depends almost never for food 

 upon diving through the water to capture them, as others of its 

 kin do, and almost entirely upon aerial plunges after insects. For 

 this reason it haunts marsh lands and darts and skims above the 

 tall reeds and sedges, also the home of winged bettles, moths, 

 spiders, and aquatic insects, dividing its time between the wav- 

 ing plants and the water waves that comb the beach. It is never 

 found far out at sea, as the gulls are, though rarely far from it. 



Like the black tern, it is not a beach-nester, but resorts in 

 companies to its hunting grounds in the marshes, and breaks 

 down some of the reeds and grasses to form what by courtesy 

 only could be termed a nest. Three to five buffy white eggs, 

 marked with umber brown and blackish, especially around the 

 larger end, are usual; but all terns' eggs are exceedingly varia- 

 ble. Once Anglica was the specific name of the gull-billed 

 tern ; but because our English cousins liked the eggs for food, 

 and used the wings for millinery purposes, the bird is now de- 

 plorably rare in England. 



"It utters a variety of notes," says Mr. Chamberlain, "the 

 most common being represented by the syllables hay-iveh, hay- 

 wek. One note is described as a laugh, and is said to sound 

 like hay, hay, hay." 



Royal Tern 



(Sterna maxima) 



Called also: CAYENNE TERN; GANNET-STRIKER 



Length — 18 to 20 inches. 



Male and Female — Top and back of head glossy, greenish black, 

 the feathers lengthened into a crest; mantle over back and 

 wings light pearl color; back of neck, tail, and under parts 

 white; inner part- of long wing feathers (except at tip) 

 white ; outer part of primaries and tip, slate color. Feet black. 

 Bill, which is long and pointed, is coral or orange red. Tail 

 long and forked. After the nesting season and in winter, 

 the top of head is simply streaked with black and white, 

 and the bill grows paler. 



Range — Warmer parts of North America on east and west coasts, 

 rarely so far north as New England and the Great Lakes. 



Season — Summer visitor. Resident in Virginia, and southward, 



47 



