646 ROSEATE TERN. 



who used to shoot all kinds of Terns for sport, or for plumes for 

 ladies' hats, may have affected the Roseate to a slight degree. It 

 must, however, be remembered that this species arrives only at the 

 very end of April, and leaves, with its young, as soon as ever 

 these can fly ; and I have seen very few immature examples from 

 our seas. 



The Roseate Tern is an oceanic and southern species, and is not 

 known northward of lat. 57°, being merely a straggler to the eastern 

 coasts of the North Sea. On migration it visits Lake Leman in 

 Switzerland ; it has several colonies on the west side of France ; 

 and in the Mediterranean it breeds on the coast of Tunisia ; while 

 it ranges to Madeira and the Azores, and across the Atlantic — by 

 way of the Bermudas — to America. There it is found breeding 

 along the east coast, from New England to the West Indies and 

 Venezuela, though it has not yet been obtained in the Pacific. It 

 has been recorded in error from the south-west of Africa, but I have 

 received specimens in breeding-plumage from Cape Colony ; while 

 by way of Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands it can be traced 

 through the Indian Ocean to Ceylon, the Andaman Islands and 

 South China, in all of which it nests, as it does in tropical Australia ; 

 it has also been obtained in South Japan. 



The eggs, 2-3 in number, are laid on the ground, and vary from 

 creamy-white to buff-colour, blotched and clouded with bluish-grey 

 and rich brown ; they are as a rule more elongated than those of 

 the Arctic Tern, and measure about 17 by i'i5 in. The food con- 

 sists of fish obtained from the sea, which this species almost 

 exclusively affects, seldom visiting even a salt lagoon. In flight, 

 except when the bird is turning or hovering, the two long tail-feathers 

 are carried close together. The alarm-note is a rather peculiar and 

 harsh crake. 



The Roseate Tern owes its name to the beautiful, though evanes- 

 cent, pink tinge on its under-parts ; the mantle is of a paler grey 

 than in the Arctic or Common Terns, and, except in mature birds, 

 this grey extends to the tail-feathers ; in the primaries the white 

 inner margins are well defined to the very tips and even a little way 

 up the outer webs (more so than in the much larger Sandwich 

 Tern), and this distinction holds good for young as well as old 

 birds. Another characteristic is the shortness of the wing as com- 

 pared with the length of the bird. Early in the breeding-season 

 the bill is orange at the base, but soon becomes chiefly or wholly 

 black ; the legs and feet are red. In winter the forehead is nearly 

 white. Length 15-5 in. (bill 1-9, tail 7*5 to 8), wing 9-25 in. 



