262 BULLETIN U3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



the plumage is fresh these feathers are broadly margined or tipped 

 with " pinkish buff," but this color fades out to white. Often these 

 buffy areas are finely sprinkled with dusky; the outer tail feather 

 on each side is unmarked, but the others are more or less dusky 

 near the tips. In the juvenal plumage young roseate terns have 

 faintly rosy breasts and black or blackish feet, whereas in young 

 common terns the breasts are white and the feet pale flesh color or 

 dull reddish. The change into the first winter plumage, early in the 

 fall, is accomplished by a partial molt of the body feathers. Early 

 in the spring a complete prenuptial molt takes place, at which all 

 of the mottled feathers disappear, the black cap is assumed, and 

 most young birds become indistinguishable from adults. I have 

 never seen a " portlandica " plumage in this species. 



Adults have a complete postnuptial molt in August and Septem- 

 ber, or later, at which the adult winter plumage is acquired ; the rosy 

 breast is replaced by white and the white forehead is assumed. They 

 also have a complete prenuptial molt in the early spring which 

 produces the full nuptial plumage. 



Food. — In the swift tide rips about the sandy shoals, where the 

 voracious bluefish drive the small fry to the surface in great schools, 

 the terns find a fruitful feeding ground, for the little fish in their 

 attempts to escape from their enemies below only betray themselves 

 to the hungry birds above as they huddle together and skip along the 

 surface in their fright. Here the terns gather in excited throngs 

 and turn the tables by showing the fishermen where to troll for blue- 

 fish. In return the fishermen shoot the birds for their plumage or 

 rob them of their eggs. So the struggle for existence goes on, and 

 the weakest individual — in this case the tiny minnow — always gets 

 the worst of it, for at best he can only "jump from the frying pan 

 into the fire." Mr. William Brewster (1879) has well described it 

 as follows : 



It is an interesting sight to watch the birds collect. A moment before per- 

 haps only a few were to be seen, leisurely winnowing their way along the 

 shore ; but in an incredibly short space of time the lucky discoverer of a school 

 is surrounded by hundreds of his fellows, and a perfect swarm of eager, hungry 

 birds poises over the spot. Dozens dash down at once, cleaving the water like 

 darts, and, rising again into the air, shake the salt spray from their feathers 

 by a single energetic movement, and make ready for a fresh plunge. Every 

 bird among them is screaming his shrillest, and the excitement waxes fast and 

 furious. Beneath, the bluefish are making the water boil by their savage 

 rushes, and there is fun and profit for all save the unfortunate prey. 



The food of the roseate tern consists almost wholly of small fishes, 

 but Audubon (1840) found them feeding also on "a kind of small 

 molluscous animal which floats near the surface, and bears the name 



