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548 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
May, and as late as the 12th of July. I have seen, in the 
space of a square rod, eggs, in which the chicks were about 
ready to break the shell, and others that were apparently 
but just laid; and, close beside them both, were squatting 
young birds almost fully grown and feathered. 
About the 15th of June is the period when the eggs of 
this species are in the best condition in New England for 
cabinet preservation; the young then being, as a general 
thing, scarcely formed. 
Early in October, these birds begin to be scarce in our 
latitude, and they spend the winter on the shores of the 
southern gulf. 
STERNA MACROURA.— Naumann. 
The Arctic Tern. 
Sterna macroura, Naumann. Isis (1819, 1847). 
Sterna Arctica, Temm. Man. d’Orn., II. (1820) 742. Bon. Syn. (1828), No. 
287. Sw. and Rich. F. B. A., IJ. (1881) 414. Nutt. Man., II. (1834) 275. Aud. 
Orn. Biog., III. (1835) 366. b., Birds Am., VII. (1844) 107. 
DESCRIPTION. 
f Adult.— Upper part of the head and hind neck black; back and wings light 
grayish-blue; first primary deep-black on the outer web, dusky-gray on the inner 
next the shaft, and over the entire web at the end, inner margin of inner web white; 
the next five primaries are bluish-gray on the outer web and on the inner web next 
the shaft, this color extending over the entire web at the end, where it is blackish- 
gray on the inner margin, the remaining part of inner web white; central tail 
feathers and inner webs of the others white, the outer web of the outer tail feather 
blackish-gray, the outer webs of the two next pale bluish-gray; rump, sides of the 
head, and under tail coverts, white; under plumage bluish-gray, of a lighter shade 
than the back; bill deep-carmine; iris brown; legs and feet dark-crimson. 
Length, fourteen and a half inches; wing, ten and a half; tail, six and a half 
inches. 
Hab. — Coast of the New-England States to Arctic seas; fur countries. 
This species is almost, if not equally, as abundant on our 
shores in summer as the preceding. It breeds, in our lati- 
tude, in the same localities and at the same time as the 
other ; and its eggs are so exactly similar, that any descrip- 
tion of either is impossible, by which they can be identified. 
The only method that I know of to obtain authentic speci- 
mens of each is, either to visit localities in which either 
