795. 
760 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — LONGIPENNES — GAVLE. 
extending the whole length of the feather, ggp narrow at the base, widening as it runs toward 
the tip, within 1} inches of which it occupies the whole web; the rest of the web white, sep- 
arated from the black by a straight distinct line of division. The second, third, fourth, and 
fifth primaries have the same general characteristics, but the white space rapidly grows nar- 
rower and shorter, and runs up further in the centre than along the edge of the web, so that for 
a little way from its end it has a border of blackish along its outer margin; other primaries 
wholly pearl-blue, their inner webs margined with white. Bill coral or orange-red, with a 
slightly lighter tip ; feet blackish, their soles dull yellowish. Winter plumage: Bill less brightly 
colored, its apex and tomia dull yellowish. Front white; crown variegated with black and 
white, the former color increasing on the occiput and nuchal crest, which latter, though shorter 
than in summer, is almost or quite unmixed with white. This black extends forward on the 
sides of the head to the eye, which it includes. (But frequently found breeding in this 
imperfect condition of the black cap, which is much more usual than the complete black.) 
Tail not pure white, but glossed over with the bluish of the mantle, which deepens toward 
the tips of the feathers into dusky-plumbeous ; also considerably less forked, the lateral featbers 
having little or nothing of a filamentous character. Young-of-the-year in August: Bill con- 
siderably smaller and shorter than in the adult; its tip less acute, and its angles and ridges less 
sharply defined; mostly reddish-yellow, but light yellowish at tip. Crown much as in the 
adults in winter, but the occipital crest scarcely recognizable as such. Upper parts mostly 
white; but the pearl-gray of the adults appearing in irregular patches, and the whole back 
marked with small, irregularly shaped, but well-defined spots of brown. On the tertials the 
brown occupies nearly the whoie of each teather, a narrow edge only remaining white. Lesser 
wing-coverts dusky plumbeous. Primaries much as in the adults, but the line of demarcation 
of the black and white wanting sharpness of definition. Tail basally white, but soon becoming 
plumbeous, then decidedly brownish, the extreme tips of the feathers again markedly white. 
Otherwise as in the adults. Dimensions of the adults: length 18.00-20.00; extent 42.00- 
44.00; wing 14.00-15.00; 
tail 6.00-8.00; the depth 
of forking 3.00-4.00; bill, 
along culmen, 2.50 to 2.75; 
along commissure 3.75 ; its 
height at base 0.70; its 
width 0.50; gonys 1.00- 
1.25; tibizee bare 0.90; tarsus 
1.37; middle toe and claw 
1.40. Tropical and temperate America; Brazil and Peru to California and New England, 
chiefly coastwise, sometimes in the interior, as in Nevada. A fine species, second in size 
only to S. caspia; linear measurement nearly as great as in that species, owing to elongation 
of tail, but bulk much less. Breeds in great colonies along our Atlantic coast, dropping 2 
eges onthe sand, 2.67 long, as much as in caspia, about 1.70 or less broad, narrower and 
especially more pointed than those of caspia, rougher, yellowish-drab irregularly blotched 
with dark umber and pale purplish. Chicks spotted boldly above with dusky. 
S. (T.) elegans. (Lat. elegans, choice. Fig. 514.) EneGcanr TERN. Princety TERN. 
Similar to the last; smaller and differently proportioned ; billas long, much slenderer ; tarsus if 
anything longer than middle toe and claw; mantle very pale ; under parts rosy in high plumage. 
Bill much longer than head, exceeding the tarsus, middle toe and claw together; much com- 
pressed, very slender, scarcely } as deep at base as long; culmen quite straight to beyond nos- 
trils, then slightly convex for the rest of its length ; commissure declinato-convex for nearly its 
whole length; mandibular rami very short, decidedly concave in outline, their angle of divergence 
very acute. Gonys extremely long, exceeding the crura of the mandible, its outline straight. 
Fig. 514. — Elegant Tern, 3? nat. size. (From Sclater and Salvin.) 
