256 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



STERNA DOUGALLI Montagu. 

 ROSEATE TEBK. 



HABITS. 



I shall never forget the thrill of pleasure I experienced when I 

 held in my hand, for the first time, a freshly killed roseate tern and 

 admired with deepest reverence the delicate refinement of one of 

 nature's loveliest productions. The softest colors of the summer 

 sky were reflected on its back and pointed wings, while its breast 

 glowed with the faint blush of some rare seashell. The graceful 

 outlines, the spotless purity of its delicate plumage, and the long 

 tapering tail feathers made it seem like some ethereal spirit of the 

 heavens which it was sacrilege for human hands to touch. 



Having been always intimately associated on our Atlantic coast 

 with the common tern, it has suffered with that species in the perse- 

 cution inflicted on these birds by hunters for the millinery trade. 

 It was everywhere threatened with extermination, and became ex- 

 tirpated in many localities until its range was much restricted. It 

 formerly bred as far east as Maine, and even Nova Scotia, as recently 

 as in 1912, but I believe it is no longer common north of Cape Cod. 

 It seems to have disappeared soon after 1890 from the coasts of 

 New Jersey and Virginia, where it was once abundant. It has 

 profited, however, from the protection afforded the terns in favored 

 localities, and is now increasing on the Massachusetts coast and else- 

 where. 



Spring. — Audubon (1840) first saw this species in the Florida 

 Keys, where he was told that it arrives about the 10th of April. 

 Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway (1884) give the following interesting 

 account of its arrival on Faulkner's Island in Long Island Sound: 



It makes its appearance about the 15th of May, seldom varying three days 

 from this date. At first six or eight of these birds are seen well up in the air. 

 These hover over the island a while and then disappear. The next day the 

 same individuals return, with an addition of 12 or more to their number; but 

 none of them alight on the island until the third or fourth day. After this, If 

 nothing disturbs them, their number increases very fast. 



Its arrival on Muskeget Island, Massachusetts, is thus described by 

 Mr. George H. Mackay (1895) : 



As far as I am aware Sterna hirundo and S. dongalH first make their appear- 

 ance in Muskeget waters any time after the first week in May, and they are 

 remarkably constant in the time of appearing.' In 1892 they arrived on May 10, 

 in flocks of fifty or more, drifting sideways before a heavy southeast rain- 

 storm. In 1893 they arrived on May 8, with light air from the west-northwest 

 and clear weather. Twenty were first observed hovering over South Point, 

 Muskeget Island, very high in the air. About 5 o'clock p. m. two were observed 

 to come quite low down. The next day they were arriving in considerable num- 

 bers, flying high during the day time and settling down after sunset. The 



