The Common Tern — Sterna Fluviatilis, Naumann
This species arrives in May and nests in colonies round the whole of the coast as well as on some inland waters. In England it is the commonest Tern, but in Scotland and Ireland the Arctic Tern is almost if not quite as numerous, and both species may often be found nesting on the same island or beach.
Its food consists of small fish and crustacea, which it catches after the manner of all Terns by dropping down on them with closed wings from a moderate height.
They nest in colonies on rocks, shingle beaches, or near the margins of large inland waters, and very little attempt at a nest is made, though this species almost invariably gathers a few bents together. The eggs are usually three in number, often only two, and are very variable in colour, being as a rule greenish or stone buff, with brown and grey spots and markings.
The note is a sharp “kik-kik,” but during the nesting season they utter a loud “ee-arre,” which is rather characteristic of this species.
The young are covered with pale brown down mottled with black, and leave the nest as soon as they are hatched, but they remain near the spot until they are fully fledged and well able to fly, as they are during that period entirely dependent on their parents for food.
Soon after the young can fly, old and young gradually disperse along the coast, slowly working southwards till by the beginning of October the last straggler has left for its winter quarters in Africa.
In summer the adult has the crown of the head and nape black, the rest of the back pearl-grey; rump white; tail feathers white with greyish outer webs. Under parts white tinged with grey. Bill orange red with horn-coloured tip; legs coral red. The sexes are alike. In winter the forehead is sprinkled with white and the under parts nearly pure white. The young in its first plumage has the head white; spotted with blackish brown, the feathers of the back pale pearl-grey barred with buff or brown and tipped with white; by late autumn, however, the back is pure grey with the exception of a dark band along the carpal joint. Bill and legs yellowish. Length 14·25 in.; bill 1·7 in.; tail 6·5 in.; wing 10·5 in.