BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 499 



Sterna dougalli (not of Montagu) La yard, Birds South Africa, 1867, 369. — 

 Chapman, Trav. S. Africa, 1868, 424. 



Sterna libetana Saunders, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1876, 649. — Hume, Stray- 

 Feathers, V, 1877, 485 (Tibet, n. of Sikkim, India); viii, 1879, 158 (Tonka, 

 Malay Peninsula). 



Sterna major Olphe-Gailliard, Contr. Faun. Orn. Eur. Occ, pt. x, 1886, 28. 



[Sterna paradisic a] a (not of Briinuich) Dwight, Auk, iv, 1887, 14 (Cape Breton 

 Ishind. Nova Scotia, breeding; see Dwight, Auk, vi, 1889, 186). 



STERNA PARADISiEA Brunnich. 

 ARCTIC TERN. 



Adults in summer (sexes alike).— Pileum and nape, including upper 

 two-thirds of lores, uniform deep black; rest of upper parts mostly 

 pjain light gray (between light and pale neutral gray), the tips of 

 secondaries and tertials, upper tail-coverts, and greater part of tail 

 (including whole of inner webs) white; elongated lateral rectrix w^ith 

 outer web deep gray, growing darker terminally, in strong and abrupt 

 contrast with pure white of inner web, the outer web of next rectrix 

 pale gray; outermost primary with outer w^eb dark gray or slate color; 

 inner webs of all the primaries mostly white, with a stripe of silvery 

 gray next to shaft, this gray stripe growing gradually wider toward 

 inner primaries, on which it extends across tip of inner web and 

 runs anteriorly near edge for a greater or less distance, the three or 

 four innermost primaries, however, with inner webs light silvery gray 

 edged with white; under tail-coverts, axillars, and under wing-coverts 

 immaculate pure white; rest of under parts plain light gray (pale 

 neutral gray, slightly paler than color of upper parts), fading into still 

 paler gray on throat and chin, and into white on sides of head, next 

 to black of pileum and lores ; bill carmine or nopal red, usually tipped 

 with blackish; iris dark brown; legs and feet intense red. 



Adults in winter. — Similar to summer adults, but forehead, crown, 

 and anterior portion of lores white, the crown streaked with black, 

 only the occiput, nape, and posterior portion of \ov<^'^ uniform 

 black; under parts white, sometimes slightly tinged with gra^ 



Young. — Orbital region, occiput, and posterior portion of crown 

 dull black; forehead and anterior portion of lores and crown white, 

 the crown intermixed with blackish and stained with brownish; 

 back, scapulars, and wings pale gray, the feathers, tipped with pale 

 buff and marked with a subterminal lunule of dusky broA\ni, these 

 markings most distinct on tertials and longer scapulars, more faint 

 on back; primaries and secondaries much as in adults; lower rump, 

 upper tail-coverts, and entire under parts white, the lateral portions of 

 chest and breast stained with pale dull brownish; outer webs of 

 rectrices deep gray or slate color, paler on middle pair, all the rectrices 



o Mentioned, in text, under name Arctic Tern. 



