1018 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS.— LONGIPENNES. 



Analysis of Species. 



Wings and tail above like back nigra surinamensis 



Wings whitening along border of forearm ; upper tail-coverts white leucoptera 



H. ni'gra surinamen'sis. (Lat. niger, nigra, nigrum, black. Lat. surinamensis, of Surinam 

 or Dutch Guiana in South America.) Surinam Tern. American Black Tern. Short- 

 tailed Tern. Semipalmated Tern. Adult ^ 'i , m summer: Head and neck all around 

 and under parts to the vent, jet black ; under tail-coverts pure white. On back of neck, and 

 between shoulders, the black lightening into leaden-gray or plumbeous, which extends over all 

 the upper parts to the very tips of the tail-feathers. Inner secondaries like back ; others 

 darker, tending to the color of the primaries, which are grayish-black, silvered, with paler 

 margins of inner webs, their shafts white except at tips. Lining of wings ashy-white, this 

 color reaching a little over fore border of wing on to lesser coverts, so that it shows to some ex- 

 tent on the upper surface. Bill and claws black ; angle of mouth lake red ; feet dark reddish- 

 brown ; eyes brown. In winter : Very different; forehead, sides of head, neck all round, and 

 entire under parts, white; under wing-coverts ashy-gray. Crown white varied with grayish 

 or ashy, darker on nape, with dusky auricular and orbital bar. Upper parts generally as in 

 summer, but paler, many feathers with whitish edges. While changing, head and under 

 parts patched with white and black. Young : Bill brownish-black, base below flesh-color ; 

 mouth yellow ; feet light brown. Forehead grayish-white, deepening on crown and nape to 

 grayish-brown which reaches down to the back, obscuring the plumbeous; interscapulars quite 

 brown ; on other upper parts brown edges of the feathers. Lesser wing-coverts grayish- 

 black. A black crescent before eye. Under parts pure white ; sides of breast ashy-brown, 

 sides of body and lining of wings ashy; shafts of primaries brown. Length about 9.2.5; extent 

 25.00; wing 8.25; tail 3.75, forked 1.00 ; bill along culmen 1.10; along gape 1.60; height 

 at base 0.25; gonys 0.60. Young smaller, about 8.00; bill 1.00; tail shorter and less forked. 

 Nestlings in down, brown above mottled with black, sootier on head, whitish on sides of head 

 and middle of belly. North America at large, interior and coastwise, abundant; S. in winter 

 through much of South America. Breeds from our interior middle districts N. to Alaska and 

 the Fur Countries, often in large colonies, in marshes and reedy sloughs, in June. Nests usu- 

 ally on debris of dead reeds, often wet and floating in shallow water; eggs 2-4, 1.35 X 0.95 

 average, pointed, yet with considerable bulge of the sides ; ground color brownish-olive, rather 

 pale and clear, thickly marked with spots and splashes of every size from dots to masses, but 

 mostly large and bold, of light brown and blackish-brown, and the usual neutral-tint shell- 

 markings ; tendency to aggregate at or around the larger end. This is the American repre- 

 sentative of H. nigra of Europe, etc., but darker colored and otherwise distinguishable; some 

 authors rate it as a good species. The European bird is JRallus lariformis and Sterna fissipes 

 Linn. 1758, whence H. lariformis and H. fissipes of former editions of the Key — a p(jsition 

 from which I now recede. Our bird was described as S. plumbea by Wilson, 1813; but a 

 prior name is -S*. surinamensis Gm. 1788. 



H. leucop'tera. (Gr. XevKos, leukos, white ; irrtpou, pteron, wing.) White-winged Black 

 Tern. Adult in summer: Bill black, tinged with red; feet red; claws black. Head and 

 neck all around and under parts pure black, shading on back and scapulars into dark slaty 

 plumbeons ; wings dark silvery-plumbeous, fading to white along border of forearm ; primaries 

 silvered-dusky with white shafts and dull white area on inner webs ; lining of wings blackish, 

 varied witli white along the border. Tail and its coverts, above and below, white, abruptly 

 contrasting with dark slate of rump and black of belly; tail-feathers sluided with pearly-gray 

 toward their ends. Length 8.50-9.50 ; wing 7.50-8.00 ; tail 2.75-3.10, forked 0.50 ; bill along 

 culmen 0.90-1.00; along gape 1.20, height at base 0.20; tarsus 0.75; middle toe and claw 

 0.87. Resembling the last, and changes of plumage correspondent; distinguished in any 



