BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 505 



STERNA DOUGALLI Montagu. 



ROSEATE TERN. 



Adults in summer (sexes alike). — -Pileum, nape, and upper half of 

 lores uniform deep black; rest of upper parts plain pale gray (pallid 

 neutral gray) passing into silvery white on upper tail-coverts and tail; 

 secondaries tipped with white, and inner v/ebs of primaries broadly 

 edged with the same; outermost primary with outer web dark gray or 

 blackish slate, the inner webs of three outer primaries white with a 

 stripe of silvery gray next to shaft, the white extending to the extreme 

 tip; lateral and lower portions of head and neck, lower hindneck, and 

 entire under parts, including axillars and under wing-coverts, immac- 

 ulate white, usually more or less deeply tinted with pink, especially 

 on under parts of body; bill black, usually more or less reddish at 

 extreme base (mostly red in pre-nuptial season); iris dark brown; 

 legs and feet pure vermilion red or scarlet (in life) . 



Adults in unnter. — Similar to the summer plumage, but forehead 

 and anterior portion of crown white, the latter shaded with grayish 

 and indistinctly streaked with darker, only the orbital region, occiput, 

 and nape uniform black. 



Young. — Pileum and nape pale buffy grayish, finely mottled or 

 stippled with darker, and streaked, especially on crown, with dusk}^; 

 orbital region and upper portion of auricular region dusky or blackish; 

 remainder of head, lower hindneck, and entire under parts white, the 

 hindneck, and sometimes sides of breast, finely mottled with 

 buffy grayish; back, scapulars, wing-coverts, rump, upper tail-coverts, 

 and tail pale gray, the back and scapulars overlaid or washed with 

 pale buff, irregularly mottled with dusky, each feather with a subter- 

 minal V-shaped mark of dusky; primary coverts and primaries darker 

 gray, edged with paler, the inner webs of the latter broadly edged with 

 white; rectrices each with asubterminal V-shaped mark of dusky and 

 with outer web rather darker grayish ; bill brownish dusky ; legs and 

 feet dusky (in dried skins). 



Downy young. — Upper parts pale grayish buffy or buffy grayish, 

 thickly flecked or irregularly streaked with dusky; anterior portion 

 of forehead uniform dusky; throat and lateral portions of head and 

 neck duU grayish; rest of under parts immaculate dull white; bill 

 brownish, tipped with blackish; legs and feet dusky. 



