. A history of British birds . nd of the longest quill-feathernine inches and a quarter. The young bird of the year has the bill black, orange-yellow at the base ; forehead and crown of a very pale wood-brown ; region of the eyes, ear-coverts, and nape of theneck, black, the latter barred with pale wood-brown ; backand wing-coverts bluish-grey, barred with black and tippedwith yellowish-white ; quills grey, as in the adult; tail grey,the exterior webs the darkest, the tips of the feathers white ;under parts white ; legs pale red. By the end of the yearthe buff-colour and the barrings have disa
. A history of British birds . nd of the longest quill-feathernine inches and a quarter. The young bird of the year has the bill black, orange-yellow at the base ; forehead and crown of a very pale wood-brown ; region of the eyes, ear-coverts, and nape of theneck, black, the latter barred with pale wood-brown ; backand wing-coverts bluish-grey, barred with black and tippedwith yellowish-white ; quills grey, as in the adult; tail grey,the exterior webs the darkest, the tips of the feathers white ;under parts white ; legs pale red. By the end of the yearthe buff-colour and the barrings have disappeared, but a darkline along the carpals, some darker spots on the innersecondaries, and the shorter and darker tail, are signs ofimmaturity which are lost at the next autumn moult. The nestling is white below, and spotted with white, greyand buif on the upper parts ; it is much lighter in colourthan the young of either the Common or the Arctic, andmore like the nestling of the Sandwich Tern. COMMON TERN. GA 549LARIDJ^.. Sterna fluviatilis, Naumann.* THE COMMON TERN. Sterna Idriindo. The Common Tern is deservedly so named as regards thegreater part of the British Islands, although in the Shet-lands it is superseded by its congener the Arctic Tern. Itbreeds, however, in the southern districts of the Orkneys;also in the Hebrides and in several localities on the westcoast and lochs of Scotland, from Sutherlandshire to theSolway; also along the east coast, at Buddon-ness, Tay-mouth, and many other places. Down to the Fame Islandson the one side, and to the coast of Lancashire on the other, * Isis, 1819, p. 1847. It appears from the description given by Linnjeus ofhis Sterna hirundo and the localities which it frequented, that he did not dis-tinguish the Common from the Arctic Tern. Naumann was the first to do this,and his names are therefore employed for both species. 550 LARID^. it is, however, less abundant than the Arctic Tern, withwhich it is frequently found breeding, a
Size: 1698px × 1471px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorsaun, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbirds
