278 WEB-FOOTED BIRDS. 



ROSEATE TERN. 



(Sterna Dougalli, Montagu, Diet. Orn. Suppl. Diet. p. 432. [ed. 

 alt.] Temm. Man. d'Orn. ii. p. 738. Roseate Tern, Fjlemming'3 

 Brit. Anim. p. 143.) 



Sp. Charact. — Bill long and slender, black, orange at the base ; 

 crown black ; quill shafts white ; outer vane of the 1st primary 

 black; tail deeply forked, much longer than the folded wings; 

 tarsus orange, | of an inch long. — Adult both in summer and 

 winter, with the crown black .'' Young, white beneath ; the bill 

 black, and the feet yellowish. 



The Roseate Tern, so frequently associated with and 

 confounded in the character of the Common Tern, is 

 another species common to the colder and temperate parts 

 of both continents ; being frequent upon the coasts of Scot- 

 land and England, particularly the former ; it is also found 

 in Norway, and probably also upon the borders of the Bal- 

 tic ; visiting the northern coasts of the ocean, in small num- 

 bers, associated with flocks of the Great Tern. The par- 

 ticular places of resort for the present species, according to 

 Dr. M'Dougal, are two small, flat and rocky islands, in the 

 Firth of Clyde, called Cumbrae islands, chiefly about Mil- 

 ford Bay. On these islands the Common Tern swarms to 

 such a degree that it was scarcely possible to step without 

 treading upon the young birds or eggs. The new species, 

 here described, was shot by accident, without distinguish- 

 ing it until it lay dead upon the ground, when the Doctor's 

 attention was attracted by the beautiful pale roseate hue of 

 the breast. There did not here appear to be more than 

 about one in two hundred of the present with the Common 

 Tern, but they were at length easily singled out by the com- 

 parative shortness of their wings, whiteness of their plumage, 

 and by the elegance and slowness of their aerial motion, 



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