176 BULLETIN 15 5, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The common tern is recorded throughout the summer in western 

 Porto Rico, particularly near Cabo Rojo lighthouse on the south- 

 western point of the island. 62 As Saona Island is not far distant 

 birds seen there may have come from Porto Rico, or there may be 

 colonies that nest along the little known eastern coast of Hispaniola. 

 The records may, however refer entirely to northern migrants which 

 apparently pass regularly through this area, as such is indicated by 

 the banded birds from Massachusetts that have been reported. The 

 fact that specimens taken come during the months of fall is some 

 indication that they refer to migrant birds. 



The common tern is from 315 to 320 mm. in length, gray above 

 with black crown, and white below. The tail is white with the outer 

 webs of the outer feathers dusky. Larger size and the dark markings 

 in the tail distinguish it from the roseate tern. 



STERNA DOUGALLII DOUGALLII Montagu 



ROSEATE TEEN 



Sterna dougallii Montagu, Suppl. Orn. Diet., 1813, text and plate (not num- 

 bered) (Cambrae Islands, Firtb of Clyde). 



Sterna dougallii Tippenhauek, Die Insel aiti, 1892, p. 323 (listed). 



Breeding on the eastern coast of the Dominican Republic. 



Abbott shot a male roseate tern on Saona Island, September 13, 

 1919. Wetmore collected three breeding females on the Cayos de los 

 Pajaros or Pelican Keys at the entrance of San Lorenzo Bay, on May 

 11, 1927. Two of these were preserved as skins and one as a skeleton. 

 On the date given about twenty pairs were nesting on the smallest 

 of the three islets composing the group, where as nearly as could be 

 told from the summit of an adjacent island they were occupying an 

 open platform of rock thirty or forty feet square where there was no 

 vegetation. This was the highest point of the islet and was elevated 

 about forty feet above the water. The birds remained close about 

 their breeding place and seemed to pass out to the east toward the 

 open sea to feed. When disturbed they circled overhead with sharp 

 cries. 



Tippenhauer included the roseate tern in his list without comment 

 as to his basis. There is at present no certain record for Haiti. 



The roseate tern is colored in general like the common tern but is 

 smaller and has the long, forked tail pure white. In breeding dress 

 the feathers of the undersurface are suffused with a blush of pink 

 from which the species derives its name. 



62 Struthers, Auk, 1923, p. 474. 



