68 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



as I am positive they must have been breeding 

 there, and this is the only case thus far known 



Photo by H. K. Job Courtesy ut Doubluday, Page i; Co. 



NEST OF BLACK TERN 



The merest apology for a nest, being a slight depression, lined 

 with a few wet stems, on some little hummock which may 

 happen to project from the water 



of any evidence of their breeding on the Atlantic 

 coast. 



On another occasion also I witnessed a peculiar 

 happening with the species. It is well known that 

 they do not breed until two years old and in 

 full plumage. In their second summer thev are 

 in an immature, white-breasted phase. In 

 winter all migrate down into Central and South 

 America, and only a comparative few of the im- 

 mature plumaged birds of a year old are ob- 

 served in our borders. In June, 1915, while 

 cruising along the western coast of Louisiana, I 

 saw great clouds of rather small birds, resem- 

 bling in the distance flights of Golden Plovers 

 such as I had seen many years ago, performing 

 evolutions high in the air, and then settling down 

 on the shores of a sandy inlet back of the outer 

 beach. We managed to land and cross to it, and 

 were amazed to find there swarms of Black 

 Terns, nearly all in the one-year-old plumage, 

 with a very few adults intermingled, fairly cover- 

 ing the flats for probably a couple of miles. There 

 must have been tens of thousands of them, and 

 their identity was proved by collecting a few. 

 This would indicate that the _\-oung remain well 

 to the south, not migrating north to any consider- 

 able extent until fully mature. 



Herbert K. Job. 



NODDY 



Anoiis stolidus (LiiDunis) 



A. O. U. Xumher 70 



General Description. — Length. i6 inches. Color 

 of head and neck, gray; of hody, brown. Tail, rounded, 

 the central feathers longest. 



Color. — Forehead, white; crown, leaden-gray; sides 

 of head and neck all around, bluish-slate with a dark 

 spot in front of eye; rest of pUiinage, deep brown 

 blackening on wings and tail; bill, black; feet, dark 

 reddish-brown ; iris, brown. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest: In low bushes ; constructed 

 of sticks, leaves, and grass. Eggs: i, warm buff, 

 spotted and blotched with reddish-brown and lavender, 

 chiefly around lar.ge end. 



Distribution. — Tropica! coasts. Breeds on Florida 

 Keys, the coast of Louisiana, and in the Bahamas and 

 West Indies ; winters south to Brazil and Tristan da 

 Cunha Island. 



SOOTY TERN 

 Sterna fuscata Lhiiuvus 



.\. n, T.'. .Number ; 



Other Names. — Egg Bird ; Wide-awake. 



General Description. — Length., 15 to 17 inches. 

 Color above, black ; below, white. 



Color. — Adults : Entire upper parts, black with a 

 slight greenish-gloss ; a white crescent on forehead 

 extending above eyes, separated from white cheeks by a 



.See Color Pblte 7 



black band from eye obliquely downward and forward 

 to bill: sides of head to eyes, half way around neck, 

 and entire under parts, white; primaries and second- 

 aries, black, lighter on inner webs of former, white on 

 inner webs of latter; long outside tail-feathers, white; 

 bill and feet, black; iris, red. Young: Entire plumage, 



