134 C. H. Merriam — Birds of Comtecticut. 



hiding them from view, their jet-black caps and pearly mantles contrast 

 nicely with the pure white under parts and bright red legs. The 

 eggs were now hatching and thousands of downy young covered the 

 island, I actually caught an adult female entangled in the weeds, 

 among which their eggs are deposited with little attempt at a nest. 

 Where the weeds wei'e particularly thick, forming dense mats, the 

 eggs were sometimes placed upon, as well as under, them ; we found 

 several such. Great credit is due Captain Brooks for his watchfulness 

 over this little colony: but for him they would long since have been 

 exterminated. 



277. Sterna superciliaris, var. Antillarum Coues. Least Tern. 



Not very common. Linsley took it at Stratford, Conn. Mr. J. 

 N. Clark, of Saybrook, Conn., tells me that they are sometimes quite 

 abundant there during the migrations, 



278. Sterna fuliginosa Gmelin. Sooty TerD. 



A rare visitor from the South. The claim of this species to a place 

 among the birds of New England has only recently been established, 

 the only authentic instances of its capture having been published 

 within a year. In a late number of the "Bulletin," Mr. H. A. Purdie 

 says that Mr. J. N. Clark has a specimen in his collection "that last 

 summer flew against the side of the steamboat wharf depot, at Say- 

 brook, Coini. Stunned hy the concussion it fell and was picked up. 

 It had l)een noticed for several days, flying about the mouth of the 

 river, as something unusual."* Professor Sanborn Tenney states that 

 a specimen was killed as far inland as the northwestern corner of 

 Massachusetts ("near the Hoosac river") in September, 1876. f These 

 two are, so far as I am aware, the only I'ecorded instances of its cap- 

 ture in New England. Mr. Frederick T. Jencks, of Providence, R. I., 

 writes me that he took a particularly beautiful specimen at Point 

 Judith, li. I., last fall. Through the kindness of several friends I am 

 enabled to add five Connecticut examples to those given above, thus 

 increasing the total number ascertained to have occurred in New 

 England to eight, six of which were killed in this State. Four of 

 these I have myself seen. The circumstances connected with the 

 ca})ture of these specimens are as follows : Two adult birds killed 

 themselves, last September (ISVe), by flying against the lighthouse 



* Bull. Nutt. Ornith. Club, vol. ii, No. 1, p. 22, Jan., 1877. 

 f Am. Nat, vol. xi, No. 4, p. '243, April. 1877. 



