LARID^ — STERNIN.E : TERNS. 



759 



The forehead is white, usually quite pure ; crown white, with small, narrow, distinct streaks 

 of brownish-black, along the sliaft of each feather. On the sides of the head, before and 

 behind the eyes, and over the auriculars, the black is more largely intermixed with the white; 

 and on the nape of the neck, that is, toward the termination of the occipital crest, the black 

 is the predominating color, being only slightly variegated with white. Young-of-the-year : 

 Everyway umch smaller than the adult, the bill especially smaller, shorter, and weaker, 

 and of a duller red, more inclining to orange. Upper parts as in the adult, but the pearl- 

 blue everywhere spotted with rather small roundish or hastate spots of brownish-black, 

 largest on the tertials. Forehead grayish -white; vertex speckled with grayish-white and 

 black, the latter color increasing in amount until it becomes nearly or quite pure on the short 

 occipital crest. Wings much as in tlie adult. Tail much shorter and less forked ; the rectrices 

 with brownish spaces near their tips, chiefly on their inner webs. Under parts dull white. 

 Legs and feet rather shorter and weaker than those of the adult, but of much the same color. 

 Downy young : Grayish-white above, faintly mottled with blackish not aggregated into spots ; 

 white below, dusky across throat. Northern Hemisphere : In N. Am. irregularly distributed, 

 chiefly in Arctic regions, and along whole Atlantic coast ; has lately occurred in various locali- 

 ties in the Mississippi and Ohio valleys ; known to breed on coasts of Virginia and Texas. 

 Eggs 2, in hollow scooped in dry sand without nest, 2.65 to 2.75 X 1-80 to 1.90, broader and 

 more elliptical than those of S. maxima, with smoother and harder shell ; gi'ound-color pale 

 olive-buff, evenly marked all over with small spots of dark-brown and lavender. Breeds 

 commonly by single or few pairs, not in great colonies like S. maxima. 

 794. S. (T.) max'ima. (Lat. maxima, largest : not true. Fig. 513.) Cayenne Tern. Royal 

 Tern. Bill about as lonfj as that of S. caspia, but of very different shape, much slenderer, its 

 height at base only 

 from a fourth to a 

 third of its length. 

 Culmen gradually de- 

 clinato-convex from 

 base to tip, the amount 

 of curvature increas- 

 ing but slightly tow- 

 ard the apex, which 

 is not very acute. 

 Commissure some- 

 what sinuate basally, regularly declinato-convex for the rest of its length. Rami decidedly a 

 Uttle concave along their edges. Gonys straight, shorter than the rami, the prominence 

 between the two illy developed. Tibiae bare for a considerable distance (0.90 of an inch). 

 Tarsus not longer than middle toe and claw ; its anterior aspect shows a tendency toward 

 reticulations instead of transverse scutella, but there are usually some scales which extend 

 quite across it. The lateral and po.sterior aspects are thickly reticulated, as in caspia, but 

 the plates are not so rough nor elevated. Tail long for this subgenus, quite deeply forked ; 

 central feathers broad to their very tips, which are rounded ; lateral ones successively more 

 elongated and narrower toward their tips, the external pair slender and quite filamentous for 

 some distance. Adult in summer : Pileum glossy greenish-black, not extending below eyes, so 

 narrow on side of upper mandible that a broad white streak extends to extreme tip of the 

 feathers. Mantle exceedingly light pearl-blue, fading imi)erceptibly into white on the rump and 

 toward the extremities of the tertials. Tail white, with a faint tinge of pearly, especially on the 

 central feathers and inner webs of the others. Secondaries pure white for their whole length ex- 

 cept a small space on the outer web near the tip, which is grayish -blue, deeper than the mantle. 

 Outer web of first primary grayish-black ; the inner web of the same has a space of black 



Fio. 513. — Royal Tern, f nat. size. (From Sclater and Salvin.) 



