" LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 279 



Breeding grounds protected in the following national reservations : 

 In Florida, Mosquito Inlet, Tortugas Islands. 



Winter range. — From the Gulf of Mexico (Louisiana coast) south, 

 along the east coasts of Central and South America, to Argentina 

 (Corrientes) ; and from the Gulf of California, south, along the 

 west coast to Peru (Sarayacu). 



Spring migration. — Early dates of arrival: New Jersey, Long 

 Beach, May 12 ; Rhode Island, Newport, May 15 ; Massachusetts, 

 Chatham, May 2 ; Nebraska, April 2. 



Fall migration. — Late dates of departure: New York, September 

 11; New Jersey, Long Beach, August 25; Maryland, Baltimore, Sep- 

 tember 4 ; Kansas, Emporia, August 12 ; Missouri, St. Louis, August 

 31 ; Texas, Bonham, August 20 ; Lower California, San Jose del 

 Cabo, September 6. 



Casual records. — Said to wander in summer north to Minnesota, 

 Ontario, and Nova Scotia, but many of the records are doubtful. 

 Labrador and Newfoundland records are very doubtful. Occurs 

 occasionally in winter on Atlantic coasts of Africa. 



Egg dates. — California : Eighty-nine records, May 20 to August 

 12 ; forty-five records, June 5 to 25. South Carolina and Georgia : 

 Thirty-seven records. May 8 to July 20 ; nineteen records. May 21 to 

 June 21. Florida: Fourteen records, May 3 to June 29; seven 

 records. May 8 to 21. Massachusetts : Eleven records. May 29 to 

 July 4 ; six records, June 2 to 29. 



STERNA FUSCATA Linnaeus. 

 SOOTY TEHN. 



HABITS. 



This wide ranging species, represented by different races in the 

 two hemispheres, gathers for the purpose of breeding into numerous 

 vast colonies on remote islands in the tropical waters of both oceans, 

 where it is one of the best known sea birds and one of the most popu- 

 lar as a producer of eggs for food. Its most famous resort is prob- 

 ably Bird Key in the Dry Tortugas, near the Florida Keys, about 

 w4iich much has been written, beginning with Audubon's (1840) 

 graphic account, from which I quote, as follows: 



On landing I felt for a moment as if the birds would raise me from tlie 

 ground, so thick were they all around and so quick the motion of their wings. 

 Their cries were indeed deafening, yet not more than half of them took to wing 

 on our arrival, those which rose being chiefly male birds, as we afterwards 

 ascertained. We ran across the naked beach, and as we entered the thick cover 

 before us, and spread in different directions, we might at every step have caught 

 a sitting bird, or one scrambling through the bushes to escape from us. Some 

 of the sailors, who had more than once been there before, had provided them- 

 selves with sticks, with which they knocked down the birds as they flew thick 

 around and over them. In less than half an hour more than a hundred terns 

 lay dead in a heap, and a number of baskets were filled to the bvira with eggs. 

 174785—21 19 



