THE SANDWICH TEEN. 
247 
and Arctic Terns, nearly immersing its whole body at times, but rising 
instantly after, and quickly regaining a position from which it can advan- 
tageously descend anew. Should the fish disappear, as the bird is descend- 
ing, the latter instantly recovers itself without plunging into the water. Its 
cries are sharp, grating, and loud enough to be heard at the distance of half a 
mile. They are repeated at intervals while it is travelling, and kept up 
incessantly when one intrudes upon it in its breeding grounds, on which 
occasion it sails and dashes over your head, chiding you with angry notes 
more disagreeable than pleasant to your ear. 
How many days these bird^ had been laying, when I discovered the key 
on which they breed, I cannot say but many of them were still engaged in 
depositing their eggs, and none were as yet sitting on those which, being 
three together, seemed to form the full complement. They had been 
dropped on the sand, at short intervals, with scarcely any appearance of a 
hollow for their reception. In some instances they were laid at the foot of 
a scanty tuft of grass ; but all were fully exposed to the heat of the sun, 
which at this time I thought almost sufficient to cook them. The eggs 
varied as much in colour as those of the Arctic Tern and Foolish Guillemot, 
and were equally disproportionate to the size of the bird, their average length 
being two inches and one-eighth, their greatest breadth one inch and three 
and a half eighths. They are of an oval form, but rather sharp at the larger 
end. The ground colour is yellowish-grey, varying in depth, and all more 
or less spotted, blotched, or marked with different tints of umber, pale blue, 
and reddish. I may add that these eggs are most capital eating. 
I never saw the Sandwich Tern on any other portion of our coasts than 
between the Florida Keys and Charleston, and from whence it first came 
there, or how it went thence to Europe, is an enigma which may perhaps 
never be solved. On asking the wreckers if they had been in the habit of 
seeing these birds, they answered in the affirmative, and added that they 
paid them pretty frequent visits during the breeding season, on account of 
their eggs as well as of the young, which, when nearly able to fly, they said 
were also good eating. According to their account, this species spends the 
whole winter near and upon the keys, and the young keep separate from 
the old birds. 
Sandwich Tern, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 276. 
Sandwich Tern, Slerna cantiaca, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iii. p. 531. 
Adult, 151, 384. 
From Texas, during spring and summer, to the Floridas, where it breeds 
