BIRDS OF KA]!^SA8. 33 



entire lower parts pure white. Young, first plumage: Orbital region, occiput 

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

 with entire lower parts, upper tall coverts, Inner webs of rectrices, and tips of 

 secondaries, white. Upper parts pale bluish gray, the scapulars. Interscapulars 

 and tertlals tipped with pale buff, and marked with an indistinct subtenninal 

 lunule of dusky brown; anterior lesser wing coverts dusky, forming a broad 

 bar across the wing; primaries much as In the adult, but darker; wing coverts 

 paler than the back, and bordered indistinctly with white. Outer webs of rec- 

 trices grayish, deepening on outer feathers into slate. Bill dusky brownish, 

 the base of the mandible paler and more reddish; feet pale yellowish (in the 

 dried skin)." 



Length. 



Male 15.00 



Female... 12.75 



The birds are abundant on the Atlantic coast, decreasing in 

 numbers west, and, I think, rare and exceptional on the Pacific 

 coast; at least Dr. Oooper has never met with them there, and 

 I failed, during the three winters that I collected along the 

 coast and inland, to find a single specimen; and I am inclined 

 to think writers that report them common there have taken S. 

 forsteri for this species. 



The birds have been found breeding from the south coast of 

 Florida to the Arctic circle. I have found them breeding in 

 small flocks on the lakes in Wisconsin, and in large numbers on 

 several of the Magdalen Isles, Gulf of St. Lawrence. Their 

 nests are said bj some writers to be made of seaweeds and 

 grasses, but all that I have examined were without material of 

 any kind, the eggs lying upon the bare ground in a slight de- 

 pression in the sand. Eggs three or four. One set of three 

 eggs, collected May 27th, 1881, on Pewaukee Lake, Wisconsin, 

 measure: 1.56x1.19, 1.60x1.20, 1.60x1.20; and a set of four, 

 taken July 8th, 1880, at Byron Isle, one of the Magdalen group: 

 1.60x1.20, 1.60x1.22, 1.62x1.20, 1.66x1.18. Color pale 

 bluish to greenish drab, thickly and rather evenly spotted and 

 blotched with varying shades of light to dark brown, with shell 

 markings of pale lilac; in form, ovate. 



Subgenus STERNULA Bote. 



Wings less than 7.00. Tali about half as long as wing, forked for about half 

 its length. (Bidgway.) 



