404 LARIDE. 
southwards in winter, at which season it may be looked for in Central America. The 
nest is usually a depression in the sand, but is sometimes a rough structure of water- 
plants. 
The eggs are two or three in number, varying much in form and colour, from pale 
greenish-white or bluish-white to different shades of buff, with spots and blotches of 
blackish-brown with underlying markings of grey or pale purple °. 
/ 3. Sterna dougalli. 
Sterna dougalli, Montagu, Orn. Dict. Suppl. cum fig.’; Scl. & Salv. P. Z.S. 1871, p. 571’; 
Lawr. Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. no. 4, p. 51°; Baird, Brewer, & Ridgway, Water-Birds N. 
Amer. ii. p. 303°; A. O.U. Check-l. N. Amer. Birds, 2nd ed. p. 25°; Saunders, Cat. Birds 
Brit. Mus. xxv. p. 70°; Oates, Cat. Eggs Brit. Mus. i. p. 186°. 
Sterna paradisea (nec Briinn.), Salv. Ibis, 1864, p. 387°; 1886, p. 199°; Coues, Ibis, 1864, 
p. 889 *. 
Pil. estiv. precedentibus similis, sed rostro gracili nigro, pileo nigro cum plumis nuchalibus elongatis 
cristam formantibus, et primariis intus ad apicem ipsam albo marginatis; corpore subtus albo roseo 
induto distinguenda: rostro nigro, basin versus aurantiaco-rubro; pedibus aurantiaco-rubris; iride 
brunnea. Long. tota circa 15°5, ale 8-9, caude 2°5, rectrice extima 74, culm. 1°55, tarsi 0°75. 
(Descr. maris adulti ex Grassy Cay. Mus. nostr.) 
Ptil. hiem. ptilosi wstive similis, sed fronte alba maculata et pectore albo haud roseo induto distinguenda. 
Hab. Norta America, Massachusetts, casually to Maine and Nova Scotia ®.—MExico, 
Ventosa Bay, Tehuantepec (Sumichrast?); British Honpuras, Belize, Grassy 
Cay (0. S.®891°)—Sours America, Venezuela®; West Inpius &.—SzEas oF 
TEMPERATE EUROPE AND Eastern Asia ®; InpiaAn Ocean to Australia®; Arrica °%. 
The beautiful Roseate Tern is distinguished by the pale grey, almost silvery-white, 
colour of the upper surface, and especially by the white edging to the inner web of 
the primaries, which is continued round the end of the quill. The bill is black, with 
the base red or orange, decreasing in extent during the breeding-season. In old 
birds the white breast is suffused with a rosy blush, which gradually vanishes after 
death. 
S. dougalli, like S. fluviatilis, has a wide distribution in the Old World, and is 
found breeding in many localities along the Atlantic coast of North America. It 
probably nests in Central America also, as Salvin found it on Grassy Cay off the 
coast of British Honduras, apparently preparing to breed §. 
As Mr. Howard Saunders remarks ®, this is essentially a Sea-Tern, usually nesting 
on low islands, though sometimes on sandy coasts. Audubon found the eggs in 
Florida, where the species occurred in small flocks; the former were deposited on the 
bare rocks or among the roots of grasses. The eggs are three in number, more 
elongated, as a rule, than those of the Common Tern, but passing through the same 
variations of colour ’. 
