Jones — On Common and Roseate Terns. -lo 



Shells are not left in the nest, and there is some evidence for 

 believing that the old birds remove them and carry them some 

 distance before dropping them. 



How do the old birds recognize their own young among the 

 multitude of young birds congregated on the beach ? was a 

 question which occupied a good deal of my attention and inter- 

 est. After the young leave the nest and its vicinity they wan- 

 der about aimlessly and may be at widely different places at 

 two visits of the old birds. Hence it often becomes a serious 

 question on the part of the parent how to find its offspring. 

 Abundant opportunity was afforded for studying this question. 

 Old birds with young which had left the nest, when coming in 

 with a fish, stooped to examine each group of young in turn until 

 a young bird, apparently its own, was found, when the old bird 

 alighted. Immediately the youngster began to dance and call 

 vociferously, but not until the old one had touched the young 

 one with its forehead was the question decided. Often this 

 minute inspection was immediately followed by the de- 

 parture of the old bird without delivering the fish, the quest 

 for its own young being renewed. It thus became clear that 

 sight alone was not depended upon for recognition, but that the 

 final decision rested upon the sense of smell. Sometimes the 

 quest resulted in failure, when the old bird swallowed the fish. 

 The evidence seemed to indicate that these terns feed only 

 their own young. 



the roseate tern. (Sterna dougalli) 



I found the Roseate Tern breeding only on the Woepecket. 

 Penikese, and JMuskeget islands. Everywhere their numbers 

 were far less than those of the Common Tern. On the Woe- 

 peckets they were largely confined to the two smaller islands, 

 on Penikese to the north-eastern border and on the sand shoal 

 locally known as Little Penikese, and on IMuskeget to the nar- 

 row neck extending toward the long sand pit of Tuckernuck. 



This tern seems to be -far more fastidious about its nesting 

 than the Common Tern. I found no nests that were not in 

 the midst of grass, and the nest is generally well hidden by a 

 covering of grass. In such situations the nests are more dififi- 



