138 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



This southern species, also known as the Marsh, Anghcan, or Nuttall 

 tern is an accidental stunmer visitant on the coast of this State. Giraud 

 and DeKay found it rare on the coast, but the latter says that it occurs 

 more frequently on the Great Lakes, a statement which I have been unable 

 to verify and it is certainly not true at the present time. A record of its 

 capture on Shinnecock bay, L. I., on Jul}^ 8th, 1884, is given by Dutcher, 

 Auk, volume 2, page 38; and on South Oyster bay, a pair on July 4, 1882, 

 Auk, volume i, page 34; also Point Lookout, Oiieens county, July i, 1885, 

 (5), Butcher's Long Island Notes. This cosmopolitan species breeds on 

 the Gulf and the vSouth Atlantic coasts, as far north as southern New Jerse}-. 



Sterna caspia Pallas 

 Caspian Tern 



Plate 8 



Sterna caspia Pallas. Nov. Comm. Petrop. 1770. 14: 5S2, pi. 22, fig. 2 

 Sterna cay ana DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 2qq, fig. 277 

 Sterna tschegrav a A. 0. U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. No. 64 



skv'iui, from Eng. stern or tern; cas'pia, of the Caspian sea 



Description. Adult in summer: Large; crown and occipital crest 

 glossy greenish black ; neck, tail and under parts white ; mantle pale pearl- 

 gray; primaries grayish black, heavily silvered, but the inner webs entirely 

 gray; hill very large, coral red; feet black. In fall and luintcr: Similar but 

 the top of the head with only streaks of black. Immature: Top of the 

 head streaked with black and the upper parts spotted and barred with 

 blackish; bill paler color. 



Length 20-23.5 inches ; extent 50-55; wing 15-17.5; tail 5-6.75, forked 

 1.5 ; bill 2.5-3.1 ; depth of bill .9 ; gape 4; tarsus 1.75 ; tibia bare .75 ; middle 

 toe 1.65. 



The Caspian tern was not mentioned by Giraud or DeKav as occt^rring 

 in the State. It is cosmopolitan in distribution and is a regular but rather 

 uncommon transient visitant both on the coast and the larger lakes of New 

 York. It breeds both south of us and far to the northward, but nowhere 

 within our borders. A curious fact noticed by several observers is that 

 they almost always appear in pairs on the autumn migration, a }'Oung bird 

 escorted by an old one. 



