296 



LONG-WINGED SWIMMERS — LONGIPENNES. 



wing, tips of secondaries, lower part ot rump, upper tail-coverts, and greater portion of the tail 

 pure white. Lower parts pale pearl-gray or gi-ayish wliite (uuieli ligliter than the upper parts), 

 becoming gradually white on the under part and sides of the head, and pure white on the crissum. 

 Outer web of lateral tail-feather ash-gray, darker terminally, in ahrupt contrast with the pure white 

 of the inner web ; outer weljs of remaining rectrices, except the intermedia}, paler grayish. Outer 

 web of outer primary blackish slate ; outer surface of other primaries light silvery gray, slightly 

 paler than the back ; inner webs chiefly white, with a stripe of grayish next the shaft, this stripe 

 abruptly defined on the first five quills, but growing gradually broader and paler toward the fifth, 

 and extending, near the end of the leathers, a greater (jr less distance toward the base, but the edge 

 itself narrowly white ; five inner quills pale silvery gray, the inner webs edged with white. Bill 

 bright vermilion blackish terminally, except on the tomia ; inside of mouth orange-vermilion ; 

 edges of eyelids black ; iris very dark brown ; legs and feet orange-vermilion, lighter than the 

 bill ; claws black, yldult, in ivinter : Similar, but forehead, crown, and anterior part of lores white, 

 the vertex mixed with black ; entire lower parts pure white. Yowiri, first plumage : Orbital region, 

 occiput, and nape dull black ; crown mixed black and grayish white ; forehead and lores, with 



entire lower parts, upper tail-coverts, inner webs of rectrices, and tips of secondaries, white. Upper 

 parts pale bluish gray, the scapulars, interscapulars, and tertials tipped with pale buff, and marked 

 with an indistinct subterminal lunule of dusky brown ; anterior lesser wing-coverts dusky, form- 

 ing a broad bar across tlie wing ; primaries much as in the adult, but darker ; wing-coverts paler 

 than the back, and bordered indistinctly with white. Outer webs of rectrices grayish, deepening 

 on outer feathers into slate. Bill dusky brownish, the base of the mandible paler and more red- 

 dish ; feet pale yellowish (in the dried skin). Downy young : Not distinguishable with certainty 

 from that of S. iniradisoia (?). 



Total length, 13.00-l(j.0() (14.50) inches ; extent, 29.00-32.00 (31.00) ; wing, 9.75-11.75 (10.50); 

 tail, 5.00-7.00 (G.OO); depth of its fork, about 3.50 (average); culmen, 1.25-1.50 (1.35); depth of 

 bill tlirough base, about .33 ; tarsus, .6G-.87 ; middle toe, .75. 



Assuming Sterna libnirido and *S'. W'dsoni to be specifically the same, we must 

 consider it as having an extent of distribution throughout the entire globe hardly 

 surpassed by that of any other species. At different seasons it is found in all i)arts 

 of Europe and Western Asia, and has also been taken at Madeira, on the Canary 

 Islands, in Senegal, and in Southern Africa. It is found on the Atlantic coast of 

 North America, from Texas and Florida, as far as the St. Lawrence, breeding sporadi- 

 cally, often in company with the Laughing Gull and the Eoseate Tern, from Florida 

 to New Hampshire, and with the Arctic Tern, from Muskegat, Mass., northward. 

 Sometimes the colonies of tliese different species are harmoniously mingled ; but more 

 generally, even when on the same island, they keep somewhat apart. This Tern is 

 also common in the interior, nesting on islands in fresh-water lakes and ponds, but 

 usually in smaller numbers than on the sea-shore — probably on account of the less 

 abundant supi)Iy of food. 



