/" 



CHECK LIST OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 12o 



793. Sterna caspia Pall, b G82. c soi. R 680. 



Caspian Tern. 



794. Sterna maxima Bodd. b 683. c 562. R 681. 



Cayenne Tern ; Royal Tern. 



795. Sterna elegans Gamb. b 684, c 563. R 682. 



Elegant Tern. 



^ 796. Sterna cantiaca Gm. b 685. c 564. R 683. 



^^ Sandwich Tern. 



^ 797. Sterna hirundo L. b 689. c 505. R 686. 

 j/'' Common Tern or Sea Swallow. 



.. 798. Sterna forsteri Nutt. b 686, 69i. c 566. R 685. 



j/ Forster's Tern. 



799. Sterna macrura Naum. c 690, 693. c 567, 568. R 687 



Arctic Tern. 



800. Sterna dougalli Mont, b 692. c 569. R 688. 



Roseate Tern. 



801. Sterna superciliaris antillarum (Less.) Coues b 694. c 570. R 690. 



Least Tern, 



a Latinization, perliaps not older than about 1523, of the English tern, or stern, or steme, 

 or stirn, there being all these, and other old forms of the word ; Danish kerne, &c. We 

 have a vague impression that the word is onomatopoeic, from the cry of the bird One 

 of the names of tiie bird is the Swiss Scknirring. Most languages, however, have a 

 different set of words, equivalent to our sea-swallow; as Fr. JJirondelle-de-mer ; Germ. 

 (Scc*dc^ir»albe, &c. — Lat. anglica, English ; Montagu having named the bird after a 

 country where it is comparatively seldom seen. 



793. S. cas'-pi-a. To the Caspian Sea. 



794. S. max'-i-ma. Lat. maximus, superlative degree of marjnus, large. 



This is S. regia of the orig. ed. We are now willing to accept Boddaert's name. 



795. S. e'-lg-gans. See Rallus, No. 673. 



This is S. galericulala of the orig. ed. We are glad to return to the orig. name of this 

 species, which H. S. has shown to be not galericulala Licht., as S. & S. ha^d it. 



796. S. can-ti-a'-ca. An adjective formed from Cantium, a place in Britain, mentioned by 



Julius Ccesar ; now Kent, England. 



797. S. hir-un'-do. See Ilirundo, No. 159. 



793. S. for'-ster-i. To John Reinhold Forstcr, who wrote, among many other things, a valuable 

 account of Hudson's Bay birds, published in 1772. 



799. S. mac-ru'-ra. Gr. fj.aKp6s, long, and ovpa, tail. The word is often written maa-oura, and 



defensibly so, the full form being macrooura. But it is pe.missible to shorten oou into 

 long n, as we habitually do in leucurus for leucoourus. 



800. S. dou'-gal-li. To Dr. McDougall, of Scotland. 



This stands as S. paradisea Briinn., of the orig. ed. But Briinnich's bird being 



unquestionably the Arctic Tern, No. 799, we do not see why the latter should not be 



called S. paradisea. 



80 1 S. siip-er-cil-T-a'-rls. Lat. superciliaris or siiperciliosiis, supercilious ; i. e., relating to the 



eye-brow, supcrciliiim ; super and cilium, a hair ; because one raises the eyebrows in expres- 



