98 
HISTORY OF 
In winter, it loses the black markings of the head and neck, 
and a few dusky dots appear behind the orbits. In the young 
state, the whole of the plumage is mottled with brownish ash ; 
legs and bill, black; the lower mandible approaching in shape 
to that of the Gull’s, as the name of the bird imports, being 
angulated at the point where the lateral portions meet. — 
Length, thirteen inches and a half ; length of the bill from the 
rictus to the point, two inches ; length of the middle toe, one 
inch and three-tenths ; that of the tarsi, one inch and four-tenths. 
This species is at once distinguishable from the Sandwich 
Tern, which, of our British species, it most resembles, by the 
much greater length of the hind toe. The tibiae are much 
denuded, denoting littoreal habits, which, we learn, it possesses 
in an eminent degree. Wilson informs us, that his Sterna 
Aranea, which we believe to be synonymous with the Sterna 
Anglica of Montagu, lays three or four eggs of an olive green 
colour, marked with brown. 
The Cut represents the bird in the summer plumage ; the 
vignette in that of winter. 
