BREWSTER: BIRDS OF THE CAPE REGION, LOWER CALIFORNIA. 23 



1882, and a specimen was also taken by Mr. Towiisend at La Paz on March 14, 

 1889. Mr. Bryant says nothing about its occurrence further to the northward 

 along the Peninsula. It is " common at Puget Sound at all seasons of the 

 year," according to Dr. Cooper, but appears " about San Francisco only from 

 September to May," and does " not seem to migrate as far south as San Diego, 

 although Dr. Cooper met with some at San Pedro, late in May, in their inima- 

 ture plumage." ^ 



Mr. Grinnell considers^ it only an "occasional winter visitant along the 

 coast " of Los Angeles county, but at Monterey Mr. Loomis has found it in 

 considerable numbers early in November and about the middle of May, al- 

 though he has met -with but a single individual in mid-winter. ^ These facts 

 point to the conclusion that the Cape Region lies somewhat to the southward 

 of the usual winter range of this species on the Pacific coast. It breeds chiefly, 

 if not exclusively, north of the northern boundary of the United States. 



Sterna caspia Pall. 

 Caspian Tern. 



The only specimen obtained by Mr. Frazar is an adult female in winter plu- 

 mage, shot at La Paz on January 25. It has the entire cap black, with all 

 the feathers edged and tipped with white. The inner web of the first primary 

 shows a broad space of white along its inner border much as in S. maxima, but 

 the white is less pure, and the slaty next the shaft is paler and grayer, the con- 

 trast between the two colors being less striking than in maxima, although their 

 line of deniarcatiou is clearly defined. The next two primaries also possess 

 some white. 



S. caspia is described * as having the inner webs of the primaries " uniform 

 slate or dark hoary gray," bat this is by no means invariably the case, for in 

 several of my •specimens from the Atlantic coast of the United States the inner 

 portion of the inner web of at least the first primary is appreciably lighter than 

 the part next the shaft, although none of them show any close approach in 

 this respect to the Lower California example. The latter measures : wing, 

 16.75 ; tail, 5.60 ; tarsus, 1.65; length of bill from nostril, 1.74 ; depth of bill 

 at nostril. -73. In addition to its other peculiarities this specimen has an 

 unusually white mantle. 



This Tern, previously unknown from any part of Lower California, is noted 

 by Mr. Frazar as " rare at La Paz in January, and not seen during my trip up 

 the coast in March." The species has occurred in California, but is apparently 

 rather rare everywhere on the Pacific coast of North America, where the 

 southern limits of its winter range are not, as yet, definitely known. 



1 Baird. Brewer, and Ridgway, "Water Birds N. Amer., IL 1884, 262. 



2 Pub. II. Pasadena Acad. Sci., 1898, 7. 



8 Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 2d ser., VI. 1896, 24, 25 ; 3d ser., II. 1900, 296, 297, 318, 

 350, 358. 



* Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, Water Birds N. Amer., IL 1884, 281. 



