LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 203 



well deserves the name, imperial tern. It was christened Caspian 

 tern by Pallas, because it was first described from a specimen taken 

 near the Caspian Sea. It is a cosmopolitan species of wide palae- 

 arctic and nearctic distribution. 



Spring. — Althoufrh resident throughout the 3'ear on our southern 

 coasts, it is a summer visitor only to all of its northern breeding 

 grounds. On the New England coast it occurs as a migrant to and 

 from its summer home in Labrador. ]Mr. William Brewster (1879) 

 evident!}' found it quite common here at one time, for he says: 



During the first week of May, 1S75, I found them quite numerous at Chatham, 

 iMussacIiusetts. They frequented the sand bars near the shore, and kept apart 

 from the herring and black-backed gTilIs, the only other species of Laridae 

 present at the time. 



I have always considered the species rare here during recent years, 

 and it is by no means abundant in Labrador. Of its spring migra- 

 tion in Minnesota Dr. P. L. Hatch (1892) says: " Usually, about the 

 1st of May, or possibly a little earlier, the Caspian tern makes its 

 appearance, and for only a short time is seen passing rapidly from 

 lake to lake in search of its favorite food, the fresh-water mussels, 

 with which the margins of the marshland streams and lakes abound. 

 The flight is a marvel of gracefulness, ease, and unwearied main- 

 tenance, never failing to arrest the attention of anyone at all inter- 

 ested in the birds." 



Nesting. — The breeding range of the Caspian tern in North 

 America includes a number of widely scattered localities, in which 

 it nests under widely different conditions. 



Audubon (1840) was the first to record the breeding of this species 

 on the south coast of Labrador. He evidently did not recognize the 

 difference between this and the royal tern, for he referred to both 

 under the name, Cayenne tern. On June 18, 1833, he " found it 

 sitting on two eggs deposited in a nest neatly formed of moss and 

 placed on the rocks, and this on a small island, in a bay more than 

 12 miles from our harbor, which itself was at some distance from the 

 open gulf. On another sequestered islet some were found amidst a 

 number of nests of our common gull" (ring-billed gidl). We saw 

 only a single Caspian tern on the south coast of Labrador, near 

 Natashquan, in 1909; but Mr. M. Abbott Frazar (1887) found a 

 colony " about 20 miles to the westward of Cape Whittle," consisting 

 " of some 200 pair, mixed with a larger settlement of ring-billed and 

 a few herring gulls. Their nests were built upon the ground, and 

 generally contained two eggs, never more." 



On the Virginia coast, according to Mr. H. H. Bailey (1913), "a 

 few pairs still breed on one of our coastal islands." The Caspian tern 

 was never abundant tliere. but one or two pairs have several times 



