CHECK LIST OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 12o 



793. Sterna caspia Pall. B 682. c SGI. R GSO. 



Caspian Tern. 



794. Sterna maxima Bodd. B ess. c 502. R 681. 



Cayenne Tern ; Royal Tern. 



795. Sterna elegans Ganib. B 684. c 563. R 682. 



Elegant Tern. 



796. Sterna cantiaca Gm. B GSS. c 564. R 683. 



Sandwich Tern. 



797. Sterna hirundo L. B 689. c 565. R 686. 



Common Tern or Sea Swallow. 



798. Sterna forsteri Nutt. B 686, 691. c 566. R 685. 



Forster's Tern. 



799. Sterna macrura Naum. c 690, 693. c 567, 568. R 687 



Arctic Tern. 



800. Sterna dougalli Mont. B 692. c 569. R 688. 



Roseate Tern. 



801. Sterna superciliaris antillarum (Less.) Coues B 694. c 570. R 690. 



Least Tern. 



a Latinization, perhaps not older than about 1523, of the English tern, or stern, or sterne, 

 or stirn, there being all these, and other old forms of the word ; Danish tcerne, &c. We 

 have a vague impression that the word is onomatopoeic, from the cry of the bird One 

 of the names of the bird is the Swiss Schnirring. Most languages, however, have a 

 different set of words, equivalent to our sea-swallow; as Fr. H irondelle-de-mer ; Germ. 

 <3ee=$d)Jalbe, &c. Lat. anglica, English ; Montagu having named the bird after a 

 country where it is comparatively seldom seen. 



793. S. cas'-pl-a. To the Caspian Sea. 



794. S. max'-i-ma. Lat. maximus, superlative degree of mac/mis, large. 



This is S. regia of the orig. ed. We are now willing to accept Boddaert's name. 



795. S. g'-le-gans. See Rattus, No. 673. 



This is S. galericuiata of the orig. ed. We are glad to return to the orig. name of this 

 species, which H. S. has shown to be not galericuiata Licht., as S. & S. had it. 



796. S. can-tl-a'-ca. An adjective formed from Cantium, a place in Britain, mentioned by 



Julius Caesar ; now Kent, England. 



797. S. hir-un'-do. See Hirundo, No. 159. 



798. S. for'-ster-i. To John Reinhold Forster, who wrote, among many other things, a valuable 



account of Hudson's Bay birds, published in 1772. 



799. S. mac-ru'-ra. Gr. /j.ai<p6s, long, and ovpa, tail. The word is often written macroura, and 



defensibly so, the full form being macrooura. But it is permissible to shorten oou into 

 long ii, as we habitually do in It.ucurus for leucoourus. 



800. S. dou'-gal-li. To Dr. McDougall, of Scotland. 



This stands as S. para di sea Briinn., of the orig. ed. But Briinnich's bird being 

 unquestionably the Arctic Tern, No. 799, we do not see why the latter should not be 

 called S. paradisea. 



801 S. sup-er-cH-T-a'-rls. Lat. sitperciliaris or super dlioxus, supercilious; i.e., relating to the 

 eye-brow, supercilium ; super and cilium, a hair ; because one raises the eyebrows in expres- 



