LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 287 



south to Patagonia (Ascension), Tristan da Cunha, and the Falk- 

 land Islands. 



Casual records. — Has wandered north (numerous records) as far 

 as Maine (Piscataquis County, October 5, 1878), and New York 

 (Lake Champlain, September 6, 1876). Several Bermuda and Eu- 

 ropean records, such as England (near Wallingford, June 21, 1869), 

 and France (near Verdun, June 15, 1854). 



Egg dates. — Bahama Islands : Forty-eight records. May 6 to June 

 10; twenty-four records, May 18 to June 2. Texas: Eight records, 

 May 10 to 22. Florida: Six records, April 10 to June 5; three 

 records. May 2 to 21. 



STERNA ANAETHETA Scopoli. 

 BRIDLED TERN. 



HABITS. 



The bridled tern so closely resembles its near relative, the sooty 

 tern, that it can hardly be distinguished from it in life by the 

 casual observer. The two species are intimately associated and very 

 abundant among the tropical islands of the West Indies, although 

 the sooty is much more abundant than the bridled tern in most 

 localities and is more widely distributed. Owing to the difficulty in 

 distinguishing the two in life very little comparative study of the 

 two has been made, and very little has been published about the 

 habits of the bridled tern, but probably most of its habits are 

 similar to those of its better-known relative. Both species are known 

 to the island natives as " egg birds," about which Dr. Frank M. 

 Chapman (1908) says: 



Throughout the Bahamas the name " Egg bird " is applied to the sooty, 

 bridled, and noddy terns. The latter part of April these birds come in large 

 numbers to certain regularly frequented keys to breed. If their resort be near 

 a settlement, they are robbed of their eggs by its inhabitants. In Nassau I have 

 seen many of them offered for sale on the .street, each one with tlie shell punc- 

 tured as a guarantee that one was not buying a tern. If they are remote 

 from human habitation, they are generally preyed upon by the cruising 

 spongers, to whose scanty bill of fare fresli eggs are an eagerly sought addi- 

 tion. Doubtless there are but few colonies of terns in the Bahamas that 

 do not contribute to the food supply of the usually hungry native, hence the 

 current name egg bird. Efforts to secure tlie passage of a law prohibiting 

 the taking of the eggs of these birds has failed, and, sxMitinK^ut aside, provided 

 they are permitted to breed and their numbers ther(>fore not decreased, there 

 seems to be no reason why, in a country of such limited food products, this 

 source of supply should not l)e drawn upon. 



Nesting. — Although it often resorts to the same islands to breed, 

 its nesting habits are somewhat different from those of the sooty tern, 

 as the following brief accounts, selected from a large number, will 

 show : 



