The Roseate Tern — Sterna Dougalli, Montagu
This Tern still nests in small numbers round our shores, but it is extremely scarce and somewhat erratic in its choice of breeding-quarters, which often vary from year to year. It arrives very late in May, and leaves our shores as soon as the young can fly, so that it is not often met with on migration. It breeds sparingly on the coast of France, but its chief breeding-quarters are along the Atlantic coast of the United States.
In general habits it resembles its congeners, but it is an exclusively sea Tern, obtaining most of its food some distance out at sea.
In plumage it is almost indistinguishable from the two following species, but it may be recognised at all ages by the white inner margins to the primaries reaching the tip and even some little way up the outer web. The bill in the breeding season is black; legs and feet red. Length 15·5 in.; wing 9 in.