I. THE BIRDS 
squabble ensues, and in a twinkling away the whole flock 
sail, apparently all good friends again. They arrive on 
our coast about April 28th and depart from their breed- 
ing grounds about the middle of September, although 
during mild winters some few remain in Hampton Roads 
and its immediate vicinity. Three eggs constitute a full 
setting generally. I know of but a single instance of five 
eges being found in a nest, probably laid by two birds. 
The ground color varies from a light gray to a light brown, 
spotted, specked, and blotched with dark shades of brown 
and fainter markings of lilac. The size varies greatly 
also, the average being 1.80x1.30. Fresh eggs from May 
25th to June 15th, though eggs have been found as late 
as July 6th, the birds though probably having been broken 
up previously. They rear only one brood a season. 
[70]. Sterna hirundo (Linneus): Common Teri. 
[Big Striker. Big Sea Swallow. Wilson’s Tern]. 
Raner.— Northern Hemisphere, northern South 
America, and Africa. Breeds from Great Slave Lake, 
central Keewatin, and southern Ungava south to south- 
western Saskatchewan, northern North Dakota, southern 
Wisconsin, northern Ohio, and North Carolina; winters 
from Florida to Brazil; casual in migration on Pacific 
Coast from British Columbia to Lower California. In 
Eastern Hemisphere breeds in Europe and Asia, and 
winters in India and southern Africa. 
Fortunately the style of birds in hats about the year 
1890 called for small ones, else this species, like the fot- 
lowing, would have been driven from our coast before an 
