1012 SYS TEMA TIC S Y NOP SIS. — L ONGIPENNES. 



blackish, indistinguishable with certainty from those of several related species, with some of 

 which the present species often breeds in colonies ; they are laid on the bare sand or shingle 

 of the seashore or large inland waters ; but (together with those of dougalli) on pasture sward 

 at Penikese Island. A very common species, wide-ranging in many parts of the world ; Europe, 

 Asia, Africa, and South America; in North America throughout, both coastwise and inland, 

 but most numerous east of the Great Plains ; breeding irregularly from Arctic regions to Gulf 

 of Mexico, and wintering from the Southern States southward. 



S. paradis'aea. (Old Persian pairidaeza, Arahic fir daus, late Lat. paradisus-, Gr. irapadeisos, 

 paradeisos, a park or pleasure ground, used for the alleged Garden of Eden or Paradise, by 

 uncritical Biblical scribes, and hence for heaven as the abode of the blessed after death. Figs. 

 696, 697.) Paradise Tern. Arctic Tern. Crimson-billed Tern. Long-tailed 

 Tern. Short-footed Tern. Portland Tern. Pike's Tern. Bill shorter than head, 

 equal to middle toe and tarsus together, slender, compressed, acute. Feet remarkably small 

 and weak ; tibiae bare for a moderate distance ; tarsus shorter than middle toe without claw, 

 or only equal to it; toes rather long for the size of the feet; the outer falls but little short of 

 the middle one, while the claw of the inner hardly reaches beyond the third 

 joint of the middle one. Adult (J 9 > iu breeding plumage : Bill carmine 

 or lake-red, usually without any black ; feet a lighter tint of the same, 

 tending to vermilion or coral-red, but not so light as those of hirundo. 

 Shafts of primaries white, with scarcely darker tips. Outer web of 1st 

 primary grayish-black, lightening into silvery-gray at tip ; inner web white, 

 with a line of grayish-dusky along the shaft, narrower and lighter than in 

 hirundo; next 4 or 5 primaries silvery-gray, darkest toward tips, the inner 

 webs mostly white (wholly so at their bases) ; but the white does not extend 

 so far toward the tip as on the 1st primary, and runs up farther in the 

 centre of the web than on the edge of it. Inner primaries of the color of 

 the back, broadly tipped and margined internally with white. Tail ex- 

 ceedingly long, the streamers as much lengthened, and as narrow, as in 

 dougalli, reaching beyond the tips of the folded wings. Tail pure white; 

 Tern. Right foot. (L. Outer web of its exterior feather grayish-black, lighter basally; its inner 

 A. Fuertes.) web, and the outer webs of the next two rectrices, having a tinge of pearl- 



blue. Cap lustrous greenish-black, so broad as to leave only a slender line 

 of white along edge of feathers on side of upper mandible. Mantle pearl-blue, of about the 

 same shade as in hirundo, fading into white at tips of inner secondaries. Under parts but 

 a little lighter shade of the color of the back, fading insensibly into whitish on chin, throat, 

 and edges of the black cap, and ending abruptly at the under tail-coverts, which are white, 

 in marked contrast to the rest of the under parts ; lining of wings and axillars also white. 

 Winter plumage of adult : Differs from the above chiefly in the color of the cap ; forehead 

 white ; crown white, but marked with narrow black shaft-lines which increase backward 

 until the nape is nearly or quite black. A dark lateral stripe, more or less distinct, extends 

 over auriculars beyond eye, leaving eyelids white. Upper parts much as in summer, but 

 under parts from chin to vent, much lighter. Young-of-the-year : Bill small, only about 1.08, 

 brownish-black toward tip, gonys and sides of lower mandible toward the angle of the mouth 

 dull orange; feet only orange on the soles, otherwise brownish-red. Tail only 4.75-5.00, the 

 outer rectrices scarcely streaming. Forehead white ; crown with narrow, longitudinal spots 

 of white upon a black ground which extends to the eyes, and runs back over the auriculars to 

 the nape. Whole under parts, including under tail-coverts and under surfaces of wings, pure 

 white. Back light bluish-gray (somewhat darker than in hirundo), all the feathers tipped 

 with yellowish-white or white, most of them with a blackish -brown streak or crescentic spot 

 near the end, darkest on inner secondaries, and forming one broad streak on the least wing- 



