ROSEATE TERN. 
479 
NA TA TO RES. 
LARI DAE. 
ROSEATE TERN. 
Sterna Dougallii. 
PLATE CXXXII. FIG. I. 
I AM not aware that the Roseate Tern is ever met with 
in the same abundance as other species of the genus. 
Upon the Fern and Coquet Islands, the only places where 
I have myself had the pleasure of seeing them, they are 
very limited in number, consisting of a few pairs only, 
mixed and associating with the large flocks of arctic and 
common terns, from the many thousands of which it is 
by no means easy to distinguish them. Their eggs are 
likewise laid amongst those of the other species, and so 
much resemble large oblong varieties of the eggs of the 
arctic and common terns, that the only means of ascer¬ 
taining them with certainty is by watching the bird settle 
upon the nest. The eggs seem, however, to be more 
constantly of a lighter colour, and more covered with 
minute spots than those of the other terns; are larger, 
and usually longer in proportion to their breadth; they 
are two or three in number, and are deposited either upon 
the bare ground, or upon a small quantity of dry grass. 
Mr. J. Hancock found this species breeding in numbers 
upon Foulney Island, on the coast of Lancashire, and 
forming there, a much larger proportion of the dense 
flocks of terns which resort to that side of the island 
than it does on the coast of Northumberland. 
