286 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



On its breeding grounds the sooty tern is not only a very active 

 and nervous bird, but a very noisy one as well. Its shrill, piercing 

 cries create an incessant din ; it is almost never quiet, even at night. 

 One can hardly make himself heard in the rookeries by day and it is 

 difficult to sleep near them at night. Doctor Chapman (1908) de- 

 scribes the notes as follows : 



The sooty's common flight note is a squeaky quack and a clearly enunciated, 

 high-pitched ker-wacky-wack. Nesting birds when disturbed uttered a sharp 

 barking note, changing to a long-drawn, aggressive squawk, suggesting the notes 

 of an annoyed brooding hen. Indeed, as one crawled through the more or less 

 open spaces beneath the bushes with birds protesting or retreating, one seemed 

 to have invaded a densely populated hen yard. 



Mr. C. J. Maynard's (1896) version is only slightly dilfferent. He 

 says : 



The ordinary notes of the sooty tern are extremely harsh, sounding like 

 " Quanck," " quanck ; " but when disturbed on their breeding grounds they utter 

 a double note like " qu-ank." They also, at such times, emit a snarling sound, 

 when all the terns on the key will dive downward, and darting outward, fly 

 over the surface of the water a short distance, scattering in every direction, 

 but will immediately return, and gathering over the intruder, commence their 

 noisy cries, continuing until another one of them chances to give this peculiar 

 sound, when off they will go again, repeating the maneuver over and over again, 

 as long as the object of their aversion remains on the key. 



Winter. — After the breeding season is over and the young birds 

 are able to fly the sooty terns leave their breeding grounds and 

 wander about the neighboring seacoasts, sometimes much farther 

 north. Many of them winter in the Gulf of Mexico and among the 

 West Indies, while others wander south along the tropical coasts of 

 South America. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Breeding range. — The Atlantic form breeds from the Florida 

 Keys (Dry Tortugas) eastward throughout the Bahamas (xA.twoods, 

 Gauldings, and Ship Channel Keys, Acklin, Eleuthera, Watlings, and 

 Berry Islands, etc.). Southward throughout the West Indies (Cuba, 

 Jamaica, Porto Rico, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Carriacou, etc.) to 

 Venezuela (Margarita Island). Westward to British Honduras 

 (Belize) . Northward, formerly at least, to southern Texas (Cameron 

 and Nueces Counties). Also on tropical islands in the Atlantic 

 Ocean at least as far south as equatorial Brazil (Fernando Noronha 

 Island) and Ascension Island. Other forms are widely distributed 

 in the Pacific Ocean and adjacent seas. 



Breeding grounds protected in the following national reservations : 

 In Florida, Tortugas Keys. 



Winter range. — Practically resident throughout most of its breed- 

 ing rano^e. Winter range extends north to the Louisiana coast and 



