THE FORSTER TERN. 2” 947 
Recognition Marks.—Little Hawk size. Black of wings and slate of head 
and neck more extensive than in L. philadelpiia; bill black with yellow tip; tail 
slightly forked; the black ring bordering the slate of head and upper neck all 
around is also distinctive. 
Nesting.—Does not breed in Washington. Nest: on the ground, sand 
beaches, moss beds, ete. Eggs: 2-5, light or dark olive, obscurely spotted or 
blotched with brown. Av. size, 1.75 x 1.20 (44.5 x 30.5). 
General Range.—Arctic regions; in North America south in winter to New 
York, the Great Lakes, and Great Salt Lake, and irregularly along Pacific Coast 
to Peru. Casual in Kansas, Bermuda, etc. 
Range in Washington.—Casual on (and off) West Coast during migrations. 
Two records, one by Dr. A. K. Fisher, Sea Island, Shoalwater Bay, Sept. 24. 1897. 
Authorities—Dawson, Auk, Vol. XXV. Oct. 1908, p. 484 (Fide A. W. 
Anthony ). 
Specimens.—(P. Alaska. ) 
THIS, the handsomest of the hooded gulls, was first given a place upon 
our list on the authority of Mr. A. W. Anthony, who sighted one off the 
Washington coast in the winter of 1898-99. This wandering is not unusual, 
for the bird has been taken as far south as Peru. And again, Anthony says: 
“T have once or twice picked up a lone Sabine’s Gull three or four hundred 
miles offshore, but the vessel offered but a momentary attraction, for after one 
or two tacks across the wake, as if to read the name and hailing port on the 
counter, the independent rover was gone.” More recently, Dr. A. IK. Fisher 
writes us that he took a specimen at Sea Island in Shoalwater Bay, September 
24, 1897. When first seen the bird was running about on the beach busily en- 
gaged in picking up sand-flies and other crustaceans. Brooks has taken the 
Sabine Gull at Okanogan Lake; and a sharp lookout should be kept for it in 
the interior as well as on the coast. 
No.. 300. 
FORSTER’S TERN. 
A. O. U. No. 69. Sterna forsteri Nutt. 
Description.—A dult in summer: Top of head and nape sooty black; rump 
white, shading on upper tail-coverts, remaining underparts pale pearl-gray ; wing- 
quills dusky, heavily overlaid to tips with silvery gray, with ivory shafts, and with 
white (decreasing inwardly) on the inner webs; tail the color of back, deeply 
forked, the outer pair of feathers much elongated and tapering, reaching beyond 
the tip of the folded wing; their inner webs of a much darker gray than the nar- 
row outer webs; underparts white; bill dull orange basally, the terminal half, or 
at least third, blackish; feet orange-red. Adult in winter: Similar, but black 
