50 



TERNS. 



21.00; white; top of 



Fig. 60. 



1. CASPIAN TERN, T. caspia. 

 head and najje, black ; man- 

 tle, i)ale. I n winter, back of 

 head, streaked with whitish. 

 Young, i^ale gray above marked 

 with a few roundish spots of 

 dusky ; back o f head, dusky, 

 crown, flecked with black; and 

 each tail feather, marked with 

 a sub-terminal dusky spot ; bill, 

 dull reddish-orange. Downy 

 young, pale grayish above; 

 back and rump, very finely mot- 

 tled with darker gray; white F, C, b, 1. 1 1-2. 

 beneath, with throat and fore neck, pale gray. Nearly cos- 

 mopolitan, breeding southward in N. A. to Ya., Texas, Cal., 

 Nevada, and Lake Michigan. Not common along the N. E. 

 coast in Aug. and Sep. Flight, rapid and tern-like. Cries, 

 harsh and rasj^ing. 



c. Crested Terns. Actochelidon. 



Form, more slender than inb; bill, more slender and 

 pointed; tail, more deeply forked and the outer feathers are 

 narrowed terminally ; occipital feathers, lengthened, form- 

 ing a kind of crest, fig. 61, and lanceolate in form ; inner por- 

 tion of inner web of primaries, white ; colors as in b. 



1. EOYAL TERN, A. maxima. 20.00; mantle, pale; 

 beneath, white tinged with rosy ; cap, deep black ; tail and 

 its coverts, ashy-white; bill, orange; feet, black. In winter 

 the occiput is streaked with white. Young, sparingly spot- 

 ted above with brownish ; tail, tipped with dusky. Tropical 

 America and warmer parts of N. A. ; breeds from the coast of 

 Ya., southward, late in May and in June, wandering rarely 

 to Mass. and the Great Lakes; winters from the Carolinas, 

 southward at which season it visits rivers often far from the 

 ocean. Abundant. Cries, harsh, loud and often piercing. 

 Flight, rather heavy and not very graceful. 



