Brewster on Terns of the New England Coast. 15 



they are always to be found during the fall migration. At Nan- 

 tucket they were fairly numerous in August and September of 1878. 

 I know of but one instance of the capture of this Tern in spring. 



Four species only out of the whole number accredited to New 

 England are known to breed along its coast. They may be given 

 in the order of their comparative abundance as follows : The Wil- 

 son's or Common Tern (S. ftuviatilis) ; the Roseate Tern (S. dou- 

 galli) ; the Arctic Tern (S. macrura) (the choice of precedence 

 between the last two species will vary as different localities are 

 considered) ; and the Least Tern (S. antillarum). Of these the 

 Roseate and Least Terns are for the most part confined to the 

 waters south of Cape Cod, while the Arctic and Common Terns 

 breed along the entire coast, and range northward to unknown 

 latitudes. Formerly a small colony of Least Terns nested annually 

 upon the Ipswich sand-hills, but they have been entirely driven away 

 by persecution. This point was probably about the extreme limit 

 of their northern range upon the Atlantic coast. I have also upon 

 one occasion found the Roseate Tern as far north as Casco Bay, 

 Maine, where a small flock was observed upon the Green Islands. 

 They certainly were not nesting there, though the date, July 20, 

 renders it not impossible that they had eggs or young on some of 

 the neighboring islands. 



Spring comes over the sea later than upon the land, and fewer 

 tokens are given of its presence. There is no freshening grass ; no 

 budding foliage, nor springing up of green things in sheltered places. 

 Summer may be close at hand, but as yet the sea gives no sign. 

 When the wind is from the north, the waves in the bay have that 

 steely glint that they have borne all winter. The sand drifts 

 drearily over 'the wind-swept beach-ridges, and the marshes are 

 bleak and brown, while in the interior Robins may be hopping about 

 upon green lawns, and violets blooming in every woodland nook. 

 The Ducks and Geese, it is true, are marshalling their cohorts and 

 stretching out in long lines northward, but the breath of ocean is 

 still chill and cold. Indeed, the season is commonly far advanced, 

 and the apple-orchards in bloom inland, ere the winter Gulls are gone 

 to their distant breeding-grounds. Scarcely has the rear-guard of 

 their legions departed, when the Terns begin to appear. And what 

 a fitness is there in the change with the changing season ! The 

 larger Gulls, that enliven our shores through the colder months, 

 seem born to breast the fiercest gusts of winter and to wrest a living 



