44 Mr. H. E. Dresser on the Birds of Southern Texas. 



Grande during the winter. I had the skin of a male bird sent 

 to me that had been shot at Fort Stockton. 



Mergus AMERICAN us, Cassin. American Goosander. 



Found occasionally during the winter. The collection I have 

 mentioned from Fort Stockton included a male and two females 

 of this species. 



LoPHODYTEs cucuLLATUS (Linnseus). Hooded Merganser. 

 Found on the Leona, Medina, and Nueces Rivers, and pro- 

 bably on most of the larger streams also, but nowhere common. 



Chkoicocephalus ATRiciLLA (Liunseus) . Laughing Gull. 



Abundant on the sea-coast during the summer. I saw great 

 numbers off Bagdad from June to August ; and when at Gal- 

 veston in June 1864 I found them breeding there abundantly, 

 making a very slight nest of straws and drift-stuff, in which 

 they lay four eggs. The nest is generally placed on the ground 

 or on a tussock of grass. 



Sterna aranea, Wilson. Gull-billed Tern. 



Not uncommon near Matamoras in July and August. On 

 June 2, 18G4, I found it breeding on Galveston Island, the eggs 

 being then incubated. The nest is generally merely a hole 

 scratched in the sand, but in some instances an attempt had 

 been made to form a bed of straws and drift-stuff. The eggs 

 arc generally three, but sometimes four in number. 



Sterna regia, Gambel. Royal Tern. 



Common at the Boca del Rio Grande during the summer. 



Sterna fuliginosa, Gmelin, Sooty Tern. 



I saw two at Galveston in June, but found no nest there. 



Sterna wilsoni, Bonaparte. Wilson^s Tern. 



I procured one specimen at San Antonio in May 1864, and 

 in June found numbers breeding in Galveston Bay, the eggs 

 being either near hatching or else hatched-out. The nest is 

 made in the high piles of drift-stuff; and the eggs, three or four 

 in number, much resemble those of Sterna fluviatilis, as might 

 be expected. 



Sterna frenata, Gambel. American Lesser Tern. 

 Common on the coast during the summer. I often saw them 



