TERNS. 83 



cliusetts to tlie arctic regions, and wintering soutliward to Virginia and Cali- 

 fornia" (A. O. U.j. 



Long Island, rare in summer. 



Eggs^ three to four, not distinguishable with certainty from those of the 

 pi"eceding, 1"62 x 1'15. 



Comparing the notes of this bird with those of the Common Tern, 

 Mr. Brewster writes : " Their notes are similar, but several of them 

 can be distinguished. The usual cry of S. macrura \^= paradismci] cor- 

 responds to the team of S. hirundo, but is shriller, ending in a rising 

 inflection, and sounding very like the squeal of a pig. The bird also 

 has a short, harsh note similar to that of Forster's Tern. At any dis- 

 tance within fair gun-range I could usually separate it from Wilson's 

 [=: Common] Tern by its longer tail, and by the uniform and deeper 

 color of the bill. In flight and habits the two seemed to me identical " 

 (Birds Observed on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. 

 Hist, xxii, 1883, p. 402). 



TS. Sterna dougalli Montag. Eoseate Tekn. Ad. in summer. — 

 Whole top of the head black ; back and wings pearl- gray ; outer web of pri- 

 maries and shaft part of the inner web slaty black (Fig. 61,«); under parts 

 white, generally delicately tinted with pinkish; tail p^'.re u^ldte ; bill black, 

 the base reddish ; feet red. Ad. in winter. — Similar to the above, but front 

 of the head white, more or less streaked or spotted with black ; under parts 

 pure white. Im..^ first plumage. — " Pileum and nape pale buffy grayish, finely 

 mottled or sprinkled with darker, and streaked, especially on the crown, with 

 dusky ; orbital and auricular regions dusky blackish ; remainder of the head, 

 extreme lower part of the nape, and entire lower parts white, the nape, and 

 sometimes the breast, finely mottled with butty gray ; back, scapulars, wing- 

 coverts, rump, upper tail-coverts, and tail pale pearl-blue, the back and scapu- 

 lars overlaid with pale butt" irregularly mottled with dusky, each feather with 

 a submarginal dusky V-shaped mark ; primary coverts and primaries dark 

 bluish-gray edged with paler, the inner webs of the latter broadly edged with 

 white ; tail-feathers marked near their ends much like the longer scapulars, 

 their outer webs rather dark grayish ; bill brownish dusky ; feet dusky." L., 

 15-50 ; W., 9-50 ; T., 7-50 ; B., 1-50 (B., B., and K.). 



Range. — Temperate and tropical regions ; in America apparently confined 

 to the Atlantic coast, breeding from Florida northward to Maine ; compara- 

 tively rare north of southern New Jersey ; winters south of the United States. 



Long Island, uncommon but regular S. E., May through Sept. 



Eggs., three, not distinguishable with certainty from those o^ S.forsteri or 

 S. Mrundo^ but averaging paler and less heavily marked, 1-G5 x 1-20. 



This species is found associated wiih colonies of Common Terns, 

 apparently making its nest among theirs. It is a less excitable, wilder 

 bird than hinindo, and its tingle harsh note, eack, may be distinctly 

 iicard above the uproar of Common Terns, as it hovers somewhat in 



