62. EEPOET OF NEW JEESEY STATE MUSEUM. 



1907, by Mr. E. C. Harlow/ who considers it not uncommon on the 

 river at this season. Two appeared at Cranbury Pond, near 

 Princeton, October, 1898, and five were observed at Plainsboro by Mr. 

 W. A. Babson, September, 1899.^ 



74 Sterna antillarum (Lesson). 

 Least Tern. 



Adults. — Length, 8.50-9.75. Wing, 6. In color similar to the Common Tern, 

 but forehead white and lores black ; outer web of outer primaries dark slate, 

 and bill yellow, tipped with black. 



Nest merely a hollow in the sand ; eggs, three, buffy white, with chocolate- 

 brown markings, 1.25 x .95. 



Xow a very rare straggler, if it be not forever gone from New 

 Jersey. Formerly a plentiful breeder along the sandy beaches above 

 high water, arriving May 12th and departing August 25th, though 

 some lingered until September 6th. Eggs from May 28th to July 

 5th.^ 



Wilson says : "During my whole stay [at their nesting site on the 

 Cape May beaches] the birds flew in clouds around me, and often 

 within a few yards of my head, squeaking like so many young pigs." 

 Scott (1879) : "Abundant [at Long Beach], breeding exclusively 

 on the ocean beach." Mr. G. S. Morris, writing of the same 

 spot in 1881, says: "The Least Terns bred in considerable 

 numbers, and were equally vociferous in their protests against 

 intruders. It is difficult, at this late date (1909), to give an 

 estimate of numbers, but I can remember standing in one spot 

 and seeing five or six nests within a radius of fifteen or 

 twenty feet, but my recollections are that these conditions only per- 

 tained to an acre or so of the beach. In the summer of 1884, in July, 

 I could find no Least Terns' eggs, and natives told me they no longer 

 found eggs on the beach.* During the period 1881-1886 I saw a good 

 deal of the slaughter of the birds in this region. I remember coming 



^ Cassinia, 1907, p. 85. 

 ° Birds of Princeton, p. 35. 



' Scott, Long Beach, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, 1879, p. 227. 



* One set is in the collection of Mrs. Drown, of Weldon. Pa., taken June 20th, 

 1S83, at Beach Haven. 



