LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 211 



Wi7iter range. — South Atlantic and Gulf coasts, from South Caro- 

 lina to Texas and Mexico. Tacific coast, from San Francisco Bay to 

 Lower California (La Paz) and western Mexico (Manzanillo). 



Spring migration. — Early dates of arrival : Pennsylvania, Erie, 

 April 26; Xew York, Canandaigua, April 28; Rhode Island, Ocean 

 View, May 10; Prince Edward Island, May 13; southern Labrador, 

 Natashquan. May 31; Nebraska, Lincoln, May 2; Iowa, March 10; 

 Michigan, Lake St. Clair, April 25; Wisconsin, Milwaukee, April 

 10 ; California, Fresno, April 3 to May 6. 



Fall migi^atioii. — Transient dates: Massachusetts, September 6 to 

 20 ; New York, Long Island, September 7 to 13 ; Pennsylvania, 

 Marietta, September 21 ; Virginia, Four-Mile Run, October 4; Michi- 

 gan, Ann Arbor, September 5; Wisconsin, Delavan Lake, Septem- 

 ber 19; Iowa, September 9 to October 15; California, Madera 

 County, September 28 to October 2, and Stanislaus County, Septem- 

 ber 4 to October 6. 



Casual records. — Recorded in summer east to Newfoundland (said 

 to have bred at Sandy Lake in 1912) and north to the mouth of the 

 Mackenzie River (Harrison Island, August 1, 1848). Taken in fall 

 in Washington (Westport, October 5, 1917). 



Egg dates. — Lake Michigan : Twenty-eight records, May 25 to 

 July 1; fourteen records, June 5 to 22. Texas: Fifteen records, 

 April 8 to June 18 ; eight records, May 6 to 30. California : Eight 

 records, May 20 to 25. 



STERNA MAXIMA Boddaert. 

 EOYAL TERN, 



HABITS. 



Although the royal tern is a splendid bird it seems to me that the 

 name " royal," as well as the specific name maxima., should have been 

 applied to its near relative, the Caspian tern, which is both larger 

 and more aggressive, a real king among the terns. The two species 

 so closely resemble each other that so good a naturalist as Audubon 

 did not recognize them as distinct, confusing the two under the name, 

 Cayenne tern. 



Throughout the southern portion of its range, from Florida and the 

 Gulf of Mexico southward, the royal tern is resident throughout 

 the year. Northward to Virginia it occurs as a summer resident 

 only, and beyond that merely as a straggler. In former years 

 royal terns bred abundantly on the coast of Virginia. Mr. Robert 

 Ridgway (1880) in the summer of 1880 found and reported a breeding 

 colony of some 500 nests, but in the persecution which followed dur- 

 ing the next 20 years this species suffered with the other terns which 



