6 THE BIRDS 
their nests less easy to find by the eggers, and the chances 
are about even nowadays that they raise a brood of two 
or three each season. The nest is a slight hollow scooped 
out by the birds in the sand, well above the high tides, 
and amongst the shells, stones, and trash left by the 
spring equinoctial storms. Two to three eggs constitute 
a full set, and are deposited about June 16th to July 1st. 
The birds arrive from the south about April 25th, and 
depart early in September. The eggs are easily distin- 
guished from other terns by the peculiar texture of the 
shell, and the grayish- and yellowish-buff ground color. 
They are profusely marked over the entire surface with 
blotches, spots, and specks of reddish-brown, with fainter 
markings of lilac. Size of eggs, 1.80x1.30. They raise 
but a single brood in a season. 
GENUS STERNA. 
[64]. Sterna caspia (Pallas). Caspian Tern. 
[Gannet Striker]. 
Ranex.—Nearly cosmopolitan. Breeds in North 
America at Great Slave Lake, Klamath Lake, Oregon, 
on the islands of northern Lake Michigan, on the coast of 
southern Labrador, and also on coasts of Texas, Louisiana, 
Mississippi, South Carolina, and Virginia; winters from 
coast of central California to lower California and 
western Mexico (Colima), and on South Atlantic and Gulf 
coasts; casual in migration north to Alaska, James Bay, 
and Newfoundland. 
