ROSEATE TERN. 277 



STERNA DOUGALLI. 

 ROSEATE TERN. 



(Plate 46.) 



Sterna dougalli, Mont. Orn. Diet. Suppl. (1813) ; et auctorum plurimorum— 



Temminck, Namnann, Degland 8c Gerbe, Dresser, Saunders, Sec. 

 Thalasssea dougalli (Mont.), Kaup, Natiirl. Syst. p. 97 (1829). 

 Sterna paradisea, Keys, u. Bias. Wirb. Eur. p. xcvii (1840, 7iee Briinn.). 

 Sterna macdougalli, Macgill. Man. Brit. B. ii. p. 233 (1840). 

 Hydrocecropis dougallii (Mont.), Boie, Isis, 1844, p. 179. 

 Sterna gracilis, Gould, Proo. Zool. Soc. 1847, p. 222. 

 Sterna douglasii, Schl. Mas. Pays-Bas, Sternce, p. 24 (1863). 

 Sterna korustes, Hume, Stray Feath. ii. p. 318 (1874). 



The Roseate Tern is one of several species of birds which were first 

 introduced to ornithologists by Colonel Montagu^ who described and 

 figured it in the Supplement to his ' Ornithological Dictionary/ about 

 seventy years- ago, and very properly named it after its discoverer. Dr. 

 MacDougall of Glasgow found several of these beautiful birds, in company 

 with great numbers of Common Terns, which were breeding on " two 

 small flat rocky islands in the Firth of Clyde called Cumbrae Islands/^ and 

 sent a skin and many interesting particulars respecting the peculiarities 

 and habits of the new species to Colonel Montagu. 



It is doubtful whether the Roseate Tern breeds in any part of the 

 British Islands at the present time ; but after attention had been directed 

 to it by Montagu, it was found breeding on several islands ofi" the Scotch 

 and Irish coasts, on Foulney and Walney Islands ofi* the coast of Lanca- 

 shire, on the Fame Islands, and on the Scilly Islands. It is to be feared 

 that all these stations are now deserted ; but the bird has occurred on the 

 Fame Islands and on the Norfolk coast as recently as 1880. 



The Roseate Tern may be regarded as an inhabitant of the Atlantic and 

 the Indian Oceans. It breeds on the shores of the American continent, 

 from Massachusetts to Florida, and on the Bermuda Islands. It has also 

 been found in the "West Indies and in Central America, and may probably 

 breed there. It is said to have occurred on the Azores. It may still breed 

 sparingly on the west coast of Denmark, and certainly does so on some of 

 the islands off" the north-west coast of France. It can only be regarded as 

 a rare straggler to the Mediterranean, and has not yet occurred on the west 

 coast of Africa; but on the east coast it has been found at the Cape, in 

 Natal, and on the Island of Rodriguez. It is occasionally found on the coasts 



