78 THE CAYENNE TERN. 



their breeding places, on which occasion they manifest all the characteristic 

 violence of their tribe, although they are much more guarded than any other 

 species with which I am acquainted, and generally keep at a considerable 

 distance from their unwelcome visiters. 



On the 11th of May, 1832, I found the Cayenne Terns breeding on one of 

 the Tortugas. There they had dropped their eggs on the bare sand, a few 

 yards above high-water mark, and none of the birds paid much attention to 

 them during the heat of the day. You may judge of my surprise when, on 

 meeting with this Tern breeding on the coast of Labrador, on the 18th of 

 June, 1833, I found it sitting on two eggs deposited in a nest neatly formed 

 of moss and placed on the rocks, and this on a small island, in a bay more 

 than twelve miles from our harbour, which itself was at some distance from 

 the open Gulf. On another equally sequestered islet, some were found 

 amidst a number of nests of our Common Gull; and, during my stay in that 

 country, I observed that this Tern rarely went to the vicinity of the outer 

 coast, for the purpose of procuring food, probably because there was an 

 extreme abundance of small fishes of several kinds in every creek or bay. 

 Until that period I was not aware that any Tern could master the Lesiris 

 Pomarinus, to which, however, I there saw the Cayenne Tern give chase, 

 driving it away from the islands on which it had its eggs. On such occa- 

 sions, I observed that the Tern's power of flight greatly exceeded that of 

 the Jager; but the appearance of the Great Black-backed Gull never failed 

 to fill it with dismay, for although of quicker flight, none of the Terns dared 

 to encounter that bird, any more than they would venture to attack the 

 Frigate Pelican in the Floridas. 



The Cayenne Tern usually lays two eggs; in a few instances I found only 

 one, and 1 concluded that no more had been laid, as it contained a chick, 

 which would not have been there had the Great Gull ever visited the nest. 

 The eggs measure two inches and six-eighths in length, by one inch and six 

 and a half eighths in breadth, and are rather sharp at the smaller end. They 

 have a pale yellowish ground colour, irregularly spotted with dark umber 

 and faint purplish marks, dispersed all over but not close. The eggs, like 

 those of the other species, afford good eating. 



I never saw the young of this bird while small, and cannot speak of the 

 changes which they undergo from their first state until autumn. Then, 

 however, they greatly resemble the young of the Sandwich Tern, their 

 colour being on the upper parts of a dark greyish-brown, transversely 

 marked with umber, and on the lower dull white. While in this plumage, 

 they keep by themselves, in flocks of fifty or more individuals, and remain 

 separated from the old birds until spring, when they have acquired the full 

 beauty of their plumage, although they appear rather inferior in size. 



