76 TERNS. 



to twenty feet from the ground. Egqs^ three to four, grayish olive with a 

 greenish tint and small clove-brown spots, cliieHy about the larger end, 1-97 

 X 1-40 (B., B., and K.). 



" The flight is easy and graceful, each stroke of the long, pointed 

 wings throwing the body up a little, while the bird peers this way and 

 that in quest of its small prey. If it fly toward one, the white front 

 of its wings, added to its white breast and neck, gives it the appear- 

 ance of a white bird with a black head. It often has a noticeable way 

 of turning partly around or cutting backward as it drops in securing 

 some object detected on or near the surface of the water, thus making 

 it appear decidedly lithe and agile on the wing " (Langille). 



The Little Gull {60-1. Larus minutus), a European species, has been 

 taken only once in America — on Long Island, in September, 1887 (Dutcher, 

 Auk, V, 1888, p. 171). 



Ross's Gull (61. BJwclostcthia rosea)^ an arctic species, is known from 

 Point Barrow, Alaska ; Melville Peninsula ; England, Faroes, and Heligoland ; 

 but has been found in numbers only at the first-mentioned locality. (See 

 Murdoch, Eep. of the Exp. to Point Barrow, p. 123.) 



62. Xema sabinii (iSab.). Sabine's Gull. Ad. in summer. — Whole 

 head and throat slate-color, bordered posteriorly by black ; back and sides of 

 the neck, under parts, except throat, and sligldly forhed tail pure white : 

 back and wings dark pearl-gray ; secondaries tipped with white ; first primary 

 black, the inner half of the inner web, except at the end, white ; second to 

 fourth primaries similar, but tipped with white ; bill black, the end yellow. 

 Ad. in winter. — " Similar to the summer plumage, but the head and neck 

 white, except occiput, nape, and auricular region, which are dull, dusky 

 plumbeous" (B., B., and K.). Im. — Forehead and lores white, rest of the 

 upper parts ashy brown, the feathers slightly tipped with whitish ; tail white, 

 l)roadly tipped with blackish ; under parts white. L., 14-00 ; W., 10-50 ; T., 

 4-50; B., 95. 



Range. — Arctic regions, in winter migrating only a short distance south- 

 ward and rarely reaching the United States, 



Long Island, A. V., one record. 



Nest.^ of grasses, etc., on the ground. Bggs., two to five, deep olive (vary- 

 ing in intensity, however), rather indistinctly spotted or blotched with brown, 

 1-78 X 1-2G (Ridgw.). 



This boreal species is of rare occurrence in the northern United 

 States in the winter. 



Suh family Sternince. Terns. 



Terns are littoral ; never, I believe, pelagic. They inhabit the shores 

 of bodies of both fresh and salt water, but are more abundant on the 

 seacoast than in the interior. Their principal characters, as compared 

 with the GuHs, are mentioned under the subfamily Larinm. Their 



