60 KEPOET OF NEW JEESEY STATE MUSEUM. 



numerous in autumn, an occasional straggler only being observed in 

 winter." This is all, except two specimens said by Dr. Warren^ to 

 have been taken by Mr. C. D. Wood in September on the Delaware, 

 below Philadelphia. In view of the fact that immature Terns were 

 very poorly understood in the old days, and that there is only one 

 valid record for this species as far south as Long Island, I feel grave 

 doubts about its having occurred either on the Delaware or the New 

 Jersey coast. There are no specimens extant from the State. 



72 Sterna dougalli Montague. 

 Eoseate Tern. 



Adults. — Length, 14-17. Wing, 9.50. Similar to the Common Tern, but 

 under surface tinted with pink ; outer web of primaries, dark slate ; tail, pure 

 white ; bill, black, red at the base. 



Eggs, three, indistinguishable from those of the Common Tern. 



Pare straggler, if it occurs at all in the State. 



Turnbull (1869) is the first to mention this species as a New Jersey 

 bird, the older ornithologists apparently confusing both this and 

 Forster's Tern with the Common Tern, with which they associated. 

 He regarded it (1869) as not uncommon. "H. A. R." (=Mr. Harry 

 G. Parker) 2 (1888), speaking of Seven Mile Beach, says, "Now gone, 

 formerly plentiful,'" and C. S. Shick (1890), while he thinks some 

 still remain, says, "Much scarcer than five years ago, when it was an 

 easy task to gather several bushels of eggs in a few hours."^ Dr. W. L. 

 Abbott, on his trips to Five Mile Beach (1877-1882) got no specimens 

 of this species, and I have heard of none observed of late years. Mr. 

 Chapman seems to have considered that they still occurred in southern 

 New Jersey in 1906,* but I know of no evidence to support such a view. 



^ Birds of Pennsylvania, p. 21. 



= O. and O., XIV., p. 4. 



^ Auk, 1890, p. 327. 



* Birds of vicinity New York. p. 136. 



