244 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



the terns. An adult flies screaming with a fish in its bill; the young responds 

 by a beseeching call and flight toward the parent, and alights on the water 

 still calling. The old one flies down and delivers the fish without alighting, or 

 doing so but for a brief moment. The thing is done so quickly that it is often 

 Impossible to know what happens. The young one as soon as it receives the 

 fish flies up into the air. 



Plumages. — Several very distinct color phases may be found in 

 the downy young of the common tern, each having numerous varia- 

 tions. The commonest type is " cream buff," " ochraceous buff," or 

 " clay colored " above, irregularly mottled with " sepia " or " seal 

 brown;" the throat is sometimes "smoke gray," but more often 

 " drab " or " sepia ; " and the under parts are pure white. There is a 

 gray phase in which the back is " pale neutral gray " and the crown 

 " cartridge buff " or " pale olive buff ; " it is spotted with black on 

 the upper parts ; and the throat is " bone brown." A much rarer type 

 is plainly colored and entirely unspotted. In this type the color of 

 the upper parts varies from " clay color " to " pinkish cinnamon " or 

 " cinnamon buff," shading off to paler tints on the sides and to white 

 on the breast. This type intergrades with the common type, and 

 there is much individual variation in the extent of the dusky throat 

 and its color, which varies from " smoke gray " to " brownish black." 



Dr. Jonathan D wight (1901) describes the molts and plumages 

 of the first year as follows : 



Juvenal plumage acquired by a complete post-natal moult shortly after leav- 

 ing the egg. Dusky markings and buff edgings are conspicuous above, the 

 lower parts being a clear white. The forehead is pale brown, blending into 

 a dull black occiput. Buffs and browns later become dull white by fading 

 and the blacks become brownish. The forking of the tail is much less than 

 that of adults, and the rectrices are more rounded, darker, and tipped with 

 dusky or buff markings which become largely lost by wear. A couple of rows 

 of lesser coverts along the cubital border of the wing form a dull black band. 

 The flesh-colored bill and feet, after first brightening, begin to darken. 



First winter plumage acquired by a partial post-juvenal moult, limited to 

 the body feathers, and sometimes a few of the lesser wing coverts. The 

 new mantle is gray except for the dusky cubital bands. The forehead is 

 white and the occiput black, with some tendency to streaking on the crown. 

 The bill and feet become wholly black. Save for the less forked, darker tail, and 

 traces of buff on the retained wing coverts, young birds closely resemble 

 adults. The change to this plumage is not apt to begin before the end of Sep- 

 tember on the Atlantic coast. 



First nuptial plumage acquired by a complete first prenuptial moult, which 

 explains the freshness of all the feathers of breeding birds. The lateness of 

 this moult in some birds is indicated by over 50 specimens (some of which 

 appear to be adults) taken in Florida between May 28 and June 3, which 

 vary from birds with the first primary barely grown to those still retaining 

 two or three of the old primaries and a number of old rectrices and body 

 feathers. The black cap is now assumed, the dusky cubital bands disappear, 

 and the bill and feet become chiefly coral red. 



