Kathy Lynn Johnson, age 9, of High Point, N.C., for her question:

What does the Arctic tern look like?

Last week, Andy answered a question about where birds go when they migrate. The Arctic tern flew into that column with his record. He migrates farther than any other bird, which makes him a champion. The details of a champion's private life are always interesting., naturally.
You would expect the Arctic tern to be a whbpping bird with a wide wide wing¬spread.  After all, every fall he flies southward from the north polar regions to the south polar regions. The journey is from ten to twelve thousand miles long. In early spring, he starts forth on his long flight back to the north polar regions. You would think that this bird must be specially designed for all this long distance air travel. Actually, he looks somewhat like a neat, rather perky small cousin of the ordinary sea gull. And in fact, that is just what he is.

The Arctic tern measures 15 inches from the tip of his pointed bill to the two tips at the end of his forked tail. His plumage is pearly gray, so pale that against the blue sky he looks white. The gray tones are deeper on his back and on the points of his graceful swallow tail. His wings have sharp elbows and they taper to sharp points at the ends. He has a long, slim red bill and a pair of rather short reddish legs with webbed feet. To set off his whites and pale pearly grays he wears a jet black cap that tapers in a point towards his bill and another point down the back of his neck. Mrs. Arctic Tern is dressed just like her husband.

The word for the Arctic tern is perky. On the wing he dips and swerves; swoops and dives like a champion stunt flier. When he sits on his nest, he crosses the ends of his pointed wings and tilts up the two points on his tail. All his neat points stand up behind him like a handful of outspread fingers.

The courting season begins in early summer when the tern arrives back to the Arctic, with flocks of his relatives. After a lot of squabbling and fancy parading around, the couples pair off and scoop a shallow nest in the ground. Mrs. Tern lays one, two or three freckled eggs. For about 21 days, both parents take turns at sitting on the nest. Then the hungry chicks hatch and both parents work hard to feed them.  Sometimes they bring home a fish that is bigger than the chick    but the little fellow never says no. He grabs a bite, then waits while he makes more room inside to swallow it down, gulp by gulp. In a few days the youngsters leave the rlegt and in a month they have learned to fly like true champions.

Many Arctic terns nest within a few hundred miles of the North Pole but a few nest as far south as Massachusetts. Great flocks of them nest together in colonies along desolate shores. When intruders come near, the father birds gang up like squadrons of swooping dive bombers. These birds enjoy four months of Arctic day and then fly south to enjoy four months of Antarctic day. They see sunrises and sunsets mostly on the long routes between their two homes.