STERNA PORTLANDICA, PORTLAND TERN. 691 



of North America, and consequently no comparisons need be made. The young hird- 

 of-the-year resembles a good deal the same age of macnira, so much so that Naumann 

 is at cousiderable pains to contradistinguish them. As the bird is then smaller than 

 Avhen adult, with a very .short tail, flesh-colored or reddish bill ; and as the macrura is 

 theu pure white below, they might perhaps be confounded. S. douyaUi is, however, at 

 once to be known by the different character of its more persistent and larger pileura ; 

 much lighter color of the upper parts, and lighter and more ob.solete and indistinct 

 color of its .spots, when young enough to have any ; the lighter color of the web of 

 its exterior tail-feather ; much shorter wings and larger and longer feet, &c. 



I have been unable to detect any difference between numerous examples of this spe- 

 cies from Europe and America. 



Though this species has often of late years been called "irtmfZisea," yet the ques- 

 tiori)ble identification of Briinnich's name had probably best give way to that one to 

 which no doubt attaches. 



STEKNA POETLANDICA, Eiclgw. 

 Portland Tern. 



Sterna portlandica, Ridgav., Am. Nat. viii, 1874, 433. 



Aduh{^), summer 2)himage.—(No. 64394, Mus. Smith. Inst., Portland, Maine, July, 1873, 

 F. Ikinnr ; type of the species, as described /. c). Forehead, sides of head, neck all 

 around, upper tail-coverts, and whole under parts, including lining of wings, pure 

 white. Occiput, crown from opposite eyes, and space around eye, slaty-black. Man- 

 tle an average shade of pearl-gray. A slaty bar along cubit.al edge of wing. Prima- 

 ries light-silvered dusky, with white shaft, the outer web of the first black, the inner 

 webs of all with large and long white space, which occupies the whole width of the 

 web at base, and on the first reaches nearly to the tip. Tail white, with light pearly 

 .shade; the outer web of the outer feather dusky. Bill and feet black, but the latter 

 with a perceptible reddishness. Bill in size and shape identical with that of a youug 

 dotu/aUi. Feet very small (just as in macrura); the tarsus notably shorter than the 

 middle toe and claw. Length, about 12.50 (tail defective ; size apparently of duugalli) ; 

 wing, 9.75 ; tail, 5 (with perhaps an inch gone) ; the fork, 2.25 (probably over 3) ; bill, 

 along culmen, 1.20; along gape, l.GO ; tarsus, only 0.60 ; middle toe and claw, 0.85. 



The subject of the present article differs materially from auy other 

 Tern I have seen. I cannot refer it to any species known to me. It 

 ai)parently comes nearest dongalU, with which it is to be particularly 

 compared. I will lirst observe that, though shot in July, it is by no 

 means certain that it is an adult bird; in fact the chances are the other 

 way. The white of the forehead is not a firm, sharp lunule, but, on the 

 contrary, an indefinite restriction of a black cap to the vertex and occi- 

 put, the black and white shading gradually into each other. The pat- 

 tern of the head is identical Avith that of a specimen of undoubted 

 iloiigalli before me. Another strong mark of immaturity is seen in the 

 slaty bar along the cubital border of the wing. This is also precisely 

 as ill the specimen of iloiujalli just mentioned. The pure white of the 

 whole under parts and of the cervix, as well as the size of the white 

 areas on the inner webs of the ])rimaries, are exactly as in douciaUi. 

 The bill, in size, shape, and color, is identical with that oi doiujaUi. So 

 far we see nothing incomi)atible with the characters of dougalli. But 

 in donyalU the mantle is extremely pale pearly, extending uninterrupted 

 over the rump and tail ; in portlandica the mantle is about as in liintndo, 

 and the rump is white. (However, a winter .siiecimen of doittjaUi has the 

 mantle scarcely paler than in porthuidica.) In dougaUi the feet are coral- 

 red or orjinge, obscured in the young in winter, and tlie tarsi are scarcely 

 or not shorter than in the middle toe and claw ; iuporthindictt the Icet are 

 (|uite blackish, and the tarsus is O.LM shorter than the middle toe and 

 claw. In the proportions of the feet, in fact, 7>or//a«r/iV(f is the same as 

 macrura. From ma<rnra, portlandica is at once separated by its black 

 bill and feet, and pure white under [)arts. 



If it could be shown that the tarsi of douyalU are ever so short as this, 



