TERNS 



59 



like a mosquito. Their food consists chiefly of 

 small fish which they gather by plunging directly 

 into the water, usually from a height of several 

 yards. So much force is put into the blow that 

 the bird often disappears beneath the surface. In 

 Florida these Terns often rob the slow-moving 

 Brown Pelican of his hard-earned jirey. They 

 are distinctively birds of the salt water and rarely 

 come inland. They seldom appear in small har- 

 bors, and we never find them flying about wharves 

 and fish factories as we do the Gulls. 



Like most sea-birds the Royal Terns assemble 

 in colonies to rear their young. Their eggs are 

 laid on the bare sandy islands with no attempt at 

 concealment. No other birds in North America 

 make their nests so near together ; in fact, when 

 they are incubating it is often difficult, at a little 

 distance, to see the ground between them, so 

 closely do they sit. 



A few years ago I visited a colony nesting on 

 Royal Shoal Island in Pamlico Sound, North 

 Carolina, where probably there were some four 

 thousand eggs scattered about on the sand among 

 the shells. A high tide sometime before liad 

 washed at least a thousand of these from their 

 resting places and left them in a great windrow 

 along the beach. The bereaved birds had then 



moved over to higher ground on the other 

 side of the egg area and scratched out new 

 nesting places. In doing this they took posses- 

 sion of a plot of ground already occupied 

 by a colony of Black Skimmers. Thev simplv 

 kicked the Skimmer's eggs away or covered them 

 with sand and at once took up the duties of incu- 

 bation serenely indiiiferent to the mild protesta- 

 tions of the discomfited Skimmers. Usually 

 other species of Terns, and frequentlv Skimmers 

 and Oyster-catchers, breed on the islands occu- 

 pied by the Royal Terns but never, so far as 1 

 have observed, within the actual boundaries of 

 their colony. The one exception to this is the 

 rare Cabot's Tern which their big neighbors seem 

 to have taken under their special protection. The 

 two species fly together, feed together, nest 

 togetlier, and — perhaps — die together. 



The Royal Terns were largely exterminated in 

 many sections of their range by the gunners of 

 the millinery trade some years ago, but under 

 the protection of the wardens of the Audubon 

 Society they are again increasing in numbers. 

 Their chief breeding places today are on the 

 islands off the coast of Virginia, North Carolina, 

 South Carolina, and Louisiana. 



T. Gilbert Pe.\rson. 



CABOT'S TERN 

 Sterna sandvicensis acuflavida Cabot 



A. O. V. .\uniber 67 



Other Names. — Sandwich Tern; Kentish Tern; 

 Boys' Tern ; Ducal Tern. 



General Description. — Length, i6 inches. Color, 

 white with light bhiish-gray mantle and tail. 



Color. — Adults in Summer; Crown and crest, 

 glossy greenish-black ex-tending below eyes but leaving 

 a space alongside of bill white to the end of the 

 feathers ; mantle, light bluish-gray shading on rump 

 and upper tail-coverts into pure white ; first four outer 

 primaries with black space near ends ; tail, color of 

 mantle; bill, black, the tip for about one-half inch 

 byif/ltt yeUozi'; feet, blackish ; iris, brown. Adults in 

 Winter: Crown, white varied with black shaft lines; 

 crest, brownish-black; outside tail-feathers, shorter than 

 in summer; yellow tip of bill less in extent and duller; 

 otherwise as in summer. Young : Forehead, crown, 



and nape, brownish-black variegated with white, upper 

 parts, marked everywhere with irregular spots and 

 transverse bars of dusky; primaries, as in adult; tail- 

 feathers, tipped with dusky ; bill, smaller and weaker, 

 brownish-black, the extreme point only, and sometimes 

 not that much, yellow. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest ; On sandy shores, in 

 colonies. Eggs: 2 or 3, creamy or buffy, irregularly 

 spotted and scrawled with dark brown, chestnut, black, 

 and lavender. 



Distribution. — North and South .'\merica ; breeds 

 from North Carolina to Florida and Texas ; winters 

 from the Bahamas. Florida, and Louisiana south to 

 Central America. Greater Antilles, Colombia, and 

 Brazil ; accidental in Ontario, Massachusetts, New 

 Jersey and Lesser Antilles. 



The Cabot's Tern in flight at a distance re- form a crest, which the bird can make quite con- 



sembles its more famous relative the Arctic ; spicuous when it is angry or excited. In diving 



however, it is a more stoutly built bird; also its for its prey it often disappears entirely beneath 



tail is relatively shorter, while its head-feathers the surface, and apparently descends to a much 



