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STERNA CAYANA— LATHAM. 



CAYENNE TERN. 



Sterna cayana, Bonap. 



Cayenne Tern, Nuttall. 



Cayenne Tern, Sterna cayana, Aud. 



Specifx Character — Bill orange, very stout, along the gap three 

 inches and a half; upper mandible much rounded ; wings exceed- 

 ingly long, extending beyond the tail about four inches and a half. 

 Adult with the bill stout, carmine ; upper part of the head and 

 occiput greenish-black'; back and upper surface of the wings light 

 grayish-blue ; neck and lower parts white ; feet black. Length 

 nineteen inches, wing fifteen and a half. Young with the upper 

 parts and tail feathers deeply tinged with yellowish-brown, the 

 feathers with black bands toward their ends. 



According to Mr. Audubon, this the largest of all our Tern?, 

 breeds on the Tortugas, and extends its migrations as far as Labra- 

 dor. In the Fauna Borealia Americana it is not noticed. Mr. 

 Nuttall does not speak of its occurring on the coast of Massachu- 

 setts, It escaped the observations of Wilson, and is not generally 

 supposed to frequent the coasts of the Middle States. To the shores 

 of Long Island it is not common — although, as we will show, we 

 have an undoubted right to enumerate it with the long list that we 

 are preparing for that locality. The cabinets of Messrs. Lawrence 

 and Brasher contain specimens that were shot at Islip. Mr. Bell 

 has received a number of specimens procured on various 

 sections of the southern coast of Long Island — one of which, a 

 fine adult male, was shot last summer at Raynor South, and I have 

 now before me a specimen obtained at Moriches. Of its habits I 

 can say but little, further than it frequents the sea shore, and feeds 

 on marine productions. Its superiority in point of size, as well as 

 its unusual [for this class of birds] strong bill, is at all times a suf- 

 ficient specifie character. " It inhabits the tropical seas of 

 America, .is common on the coasts of the Southern Stales, and is 

 abundant on the Florida Keys, where, with many species of Terns, 

 as well as Gulls, it breeds." The flesh of the Gulls and Terns not 



