748 THE FORSTER TERN, 
cap wanting, represented only by dusky stripe on side of head, and by grayish 
tinge of hind-head and nape; tail shorter and not so deeply forked, the outer 
feathers broader and less tapering; bill duller, the dusky tip scarcely contrasting ; 
feet dull reddish. Young: Like adult in winter, but upperparts varied by, or 
overlaid with, light brownish; sides of head more or less tinged with the same 
shade; tail shorter, its feathers becoming dusky terminally. Length 14.00-15.00 
(355.60-381) ; wing 10.00 (254); tail, the central feathers, 2.80 (71.1); the lateral 
pair 6.75-7.00 (171.5-179.1); bill 1.57 (39.9); depth at base .g40 (10.2); tarsus 
98 (24.9). 
Recognition Marks.—Size of Common Tern; distinguishable from it by 
subtle but sure marks; the bill is stouter and more extensively black on terminal 
portion; the upper tail-coverts are grayer; the tail more deeply forked, and the 
outer pair of feathers dark on timer webs. 
Nesting.— Nest: in colonies in marshes on the ground of low islands, in 
grass, etc., lined with grasses, flags, and the like. Eggs: 2 or 3, rarely 4, dull 
white, greenish white, olive-gray, ashy-brown, etc., spotted and blotched with 
blackish brown or umber, and with shell-marks of stone gray and lavender. Av. 
size, 1.80 x 1.25 (45.7 31.8). Season: June; one brood. 
General Range.—North America generally, breeding from Manitoba south- 
ward to Virginia, Illinois, Texas, and California; in winter southward to Brazil. 
Range in Washington.—Lreeding in marshes in Douglas County; doubtless 
summer resident and migrant elsewhere about smaller lakes of East-side. 
Authorities.—N ot previously published. [Foster's (sic) tern’ Johnson, 
Rep. Gov. W. T. 1884 (1885), p. 23.] 
Specimens.—( U. of W.) 
THE name forsteri serves to designate a very individual Tern, but the 
word is eloquent also of the early ornithological struggle. The Forster Tern 
has, in fact, emerged only by slow degrees from a chaos of ornithological mis- 
apprehension and neglect, such as, for example, shrouded the infancy of the 
Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx serripennis), or the Williamson 
Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus thyroidens). Forster's alter ego was, of course, the 
Common Tern (8. hirundo), to which it does bear a close superficial resem- 
blance. Swainson and Richardson described specimens under the title S, 
hirundo in their “Fauna Boreali-Americana,” in 1831. Nuttall, struck with 
the oddity of the characters assigned, proposed the name Sterna forsteri in a 
footnote of his “Manual” (1834). Audubon described an imperfect plumage 
of this bird under the caption Sterna havelli, in 1839, but it was not until 1858 
that its characters were clearly defined by Lawrence. 
Misapprehension as to the bird's distribution naturally persisted for a much 
longer time, and the last word has probably not even yet been said. Coues, in 
1874, wrote’: “It breeds in the interior of British America and very abund- 
a. “Birds of the Northwest,” pp 679, 680 
