General Notes 65 



THE LEAST TERN IN COLORADO— A CORRECTION 



This note is made necessary by the inclusion of the Colorado 

 record of Sterna a. antillarum in Vol. VIII of Dr. Ridgway's monu- 

 mental work on the "Birds of North and Middle America" (page 

 524). 



In the Auk, Vol. XI, 1894, p. 182, Prof. W. W. Cooke recorded 

 an example of this bird seen by him at Colorado Springs and " re- 

 ported as having been taken near Fort Collins." But in his sub- 

 sequent work, "The Birds of Colorado" (Bull. 37, Colo. Exper. 

 Sta., Fort Collins, Colo., Mar. 1897) he personally repudiated the 

 record in the following words: " Further investigation has con- 

 vinced him (Prof. Cooke) that the specimen was secured outside 

 of Colorado. There is now no certain record for this state." 



What was true in 1897, is equally so today and there is no 

 authentic record for the state. In fact the history of this record, 

 as above given, has been accepted by all subsequent writers up to 

 the present time and it seems probable that in compiling the dis- 

 tributional data for his latest work. Dr. Ridgway merely over- 

 looked the correction and included the original note. 



F. C. Lincoln. 



September 22, 1919. 



NOTES FROM LAKE COUNTY 

 Roseate Tern. — July 31, 1919, was made noteworthy by finding 

 a single individual of this beautiful little Tern on the beach at 

 the lake. I had made a wide detour in order to come in from the 

 rear on a large flock of Sandpipers assembled on the beach; pro- 

 tecting my approach, after getting close by a sand ridge, but, being 

 a little careless, they all took to wing and I was surprised to see a 

 single Tern among them, which, unlike the Sandpipers, only made 

 a short circling flight and then returned to the beach. Its snow- 

 white breast and entirely black bill — I could not detect the change 

 of color at the base — proclaimed it was a Roseate. I finally flushed 

 It and made a further observation in that the wing tips in flight 

 were very light in color, only a trifle darker than the rest of the 

 upper wing surface. The bird alighted again, and this time near a 

 convenient log, which, by crawling on my stomach and elbows I 

 finally reached, and from over the top observed my bird at a dis- 

 tance of twenty feet or less. I have never seen it so stated, and the 

 observation made on this individual may not be constant with 

 Roseate in genral, but the bird's attitude when at rest was dif- 

 ferent, and more graceful, than that of the Common Tern. The last 

 time I flushed the bird it uttered a few cries of a somewhat rasp- 

 ing quality, but entirely different and much softer than the usual 

 call of the Common Tern. 



