232 
STERNINiE. STERNA. 
upper tail-coverts white, tinged with grey; the outer six 
quills with their outer webs and part of the inner hoary black. 
Young with the bill greenish -black, yellow at the tip, the 
feet greenish-yellow, the plumage of the upper parts light 
brown mottled with greyish. 
Male, 16, 32, ll£, l T 4 ¥ , Female, 15, 31. 
This species, which is common on all our sandy shores, ar- 
rives early in May, and departs in September. It breeds on 
unfrequented sands, headlands, islands, and sometimes rocky 
places, depositing its eggs in a slight hollow. The eggs, ge- 
nerally three, vary greatly in colour, being greyish-yellow, 
olivaceous, or brownish, blotched with black and purplish- 
grey, their length an inch and three-fourths, their breadth an 
inch and a quarter, or a little more. It is remarkably bold 
in defence of its eggs or young, and will come up close to a 
person, screaming incessantly. Its flight is extremely buoy- 
ant, undulating, and gliding. It hovers over the waters, and 
dips with such force as sometimes to immerse itself entirely. 
Its food consists of small fishes, especially sand-eels, shrimps, 
and other marine animals. It is frequently found inter- 
mingled with the next species. 
Sea-Swallow, Tern. Siarnag. Pictarn. 
Sterna Hirundo, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 227.-— Sterna Hirundo, 
Lath. Ind. Ornith, ii. 807. — Sterna Hirundo, Temm. Man. 
d’Ornith. ii. 740. — Sterna Hirundo, Common Tern, MacGii- 
livray, Brit. Birds, v. 
292. Sterna arctica. Arctic Tern. 
Bill about the same length as the head, slender, vermilion 
tinged with carmine, as are the feet ; tarsus eight-twelfths 
long, wings about two inches longer than the tail, which is 
very deeply forked. In summer, the upper part of the head 
and nape greenish-black, the upper parts pale greyish-blue, 
the rump bluish-white, the tail and its coverts while, except 
the outer webs of the lateral feathers, which are dusky-grey ; 
the primaries dusky toward the end, the outer two with their 
outer webs blackish ; the cheeks, neck, breast, and sides pale 
greyish blue, of a lighter tint than the back ; the abdomen, 
and lower surface of the wings and tail, white. 
Male, 15, 32, 10£, l£, T V Female, 14£. 31. 
The Arctic Tern, which may easily be distinguished from 
the Common Tern, even on wing, as well as by its cry, which 
is shriller, is however precisely similar in its habits to that 
species, and frequently occurs intermingled with it. In the 
northern and western islands of Scotland, on many parts of 
