WATER BIRDS. 63 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Strikingly like *Forster's Tern, except in two respects. The breast and belly are light 

 gray as in the Common Tern and the outer web of the outer tail feather is darker than the 

 inner web, in this respect also resembling the Common Tern. On the other hand the 

 Arctic Tern has a decidedly longer tail, which averages 7§ inches, and the bill is all red 

 with no black on the tip (both the Common and Forster's Tern have dusky tipped bills). 

 The adults and young of tlie year are with difficulty separable from corresponding })lumages 

 of the other three species. Length, 14 to 17 inches; wing, 10 to 10.75; tail, 6.50 to 8.50 

 (forked for 4 or 5 inches); culmen, 1.08 to 1.40. 



24. Least Tern. Sterna antillarum {Lesso?}). (74) 



Synonyms: Little Tern, Minute Tern, Sea Swallow. — Sternula antillarum, Less., 

 1847.— Sterna minuta, Wils., 1813, Aud., 1838, and others.— Sterna frenata, Gamb., 1848, 

 Lawr., 1858, Baird, 1859.^Sterna superciliaris, Coues, 1872. 



Recognizable by its small size, yellow bill and feet, and deeply forked 

 tail. In size and general coloration it resembles the Black Tern in im- 

 mature or winter plumage, but the latter always has black bill and feet 

 and the short tail is but slightly forked. 



Distribution. — Northern South America, northward to California, 

 Minnesota, and New England, and casually to Labrador, breeding nearly 

 throughout its range. 



This dainty little seabird is almost or quite unknown in jNlichigan at 

 the present time, but there is some reason to beheve that it once occurred 

 regularly although in small numbers. It is included in Dr. Miles' List 

 of 1860 on the authority of Prof. Fox who is said to have taken a specimen 

 at Grosse Isle, Detroit River. There is also a mounted specimen in the 

 University of IMichigan Museum at Ann Arbor, labeled "Michigan" which 

 may have been taken in that vicinity. In the MS. notes of A. B. Covert 

 there is a record of a male taken at Sanclshore Lake, Ann Arbor, May 4, 

 1873, as well as "three specimens (two males and one female) taken at 

 Bayport, Huron county, October 13, 1878." None of these specimens 

 can be located, however, and it is not impossible that they were in reality 

 fall specimens of the Black Tern, which has been mistaken repeatedly for 

 the present species. The Barron collection at Niles was said to contain 

 a specimen of the Least Tern, but a personal examination by the writer 

 in November, 1905 failed to reveal any such specimen, although a single 

 Black Tern in fall plumage, and without label, was found. A skin of an 

 adult male in breeding plumage, from the Gunn collection, is now in the 

 Kent Scientific Museum in Grand Rapids, but bears on the label (apparently 

 the collector's label) "Short-tailed Tern, Warsaw, 111." The Albion 

 record credited to 0. B. Warren by Cook proves to be erroneous. 



It formerly nested sparingly about some of the small lakes in northern 

 Indiana, and possibly may do so still. Dr. Wheaton reported it as of 

 irregular occurrence along the Lake Erie shore in Ohio, and there arc several 

 old records for southern Ontario. This species has disappeared almost 

 completely during the last thirty years from places in southern New Eng- 

 land, where it was once abundant, but within the past few years a few pairs 

 have reappeared here and there, and possibly, if well protected, it may 

 reestablish itself in the Lake Region. 



Its habits are similar to those of the Common and Arctic Terns, with 

 which it frequently associates, and it prefers to nest on sandy or pebbly 

 islands where its three or four eggs are laid in a little hollow scooped in the 



