LITTLE TERN. 
35 
white^- cro white ; forehead and feathers alrove the eye 
the eye ^ tlirough 
face of hnri tores ; cheeks, sides of face, and under sur- 
with blart ^ white ; “ bill gamboge-yellow, tipped 
Total orange-yellow ” {IT. Samiders). 
tarsus, o-e! ’ ''^'^’tesj culmen, 1-3 ; wing, 6-8; tail, 3-4; 
feathws^®“^^®'~r^'™‘'^*' to the male, but with the outer tail- 
wing, 6-8 ^ developed. Total length, 9-0 inches ; 
'^tit with Plumage.— Similar to the summer plumage, 
primaries rif'u ^ forehead, and with the outer 
Youn '■ towards their ends. 
mottling oT distinguished by the black 
form of circnl of the upper surface, which takes the 
feathers bei ‘'‘‘■'"ow-lreaded sub-terminal bars, all the 
^*ght pearlv”® tinged or edged with sandy-buff; the rump 
'^PPer tail.r^*^^^’ of the latter colour over the 
the back tail-feathers ; wing-coverts mottled like 
ooverts •’forpli ''^ dark-grey band along the marginal lesser wing- 
with black th white, the crown sandy-buff streaked 
streak of dncm, r 1 "“PO entirely blackish ; a loral 
The sandy cr 1 blackish, with a slight reddish tinge, 
quickly disapnpor '^PPor surface in the young bird 
autumn moult black bars are maintained till the 
Nestling.. — -LiTht 
imder surface whititu^^r^”^^’ ®POtted and streaked with black; 
the gape dusky. throat sandy-buff, with the region of 
Range in Great Britain . . 
scattered colonies on m' ^ Little Tern is found nesting in 
though many localitipc coasts of the British Islands, 
where the species formp,-/"u England and in Scotland, 
I oin the south early in v? know it no mor e. It arrives 
le nrst weeks of OctoKn leaves in SejHember or in 
breeds on sea-beaches In’"’!-, T^ssher says that in Ireland it 
Lalway, and Mayo I f. Donegal, Dublin, Wicklow, Wexford, 
'-omnion or Arctic Terns smaller numbers than the 
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