iSS6.] DuTCHER, Bird Notes from Long li'.aud, N. T. 433 



no ice was driven on the beach during the past winter, therefore 

 the bird must have died while on or near the beach. It is prob- 

 able that it died of starvation, as it was very much emaciated. 

 The sex could not be determined, as the viscera had commenced 

 to decompose. 



2. Sterna fuliginosa. Sooty Tern. — To my friend Mr. 

 Charles Earle, of New York City, I am indebted for the privilege 

 of adding still another bird to the Long Island list. The month 

 of September, 187S, was spent by him at Lake Ronkonkoma, 

 which is the geographical centre of the island. A very heavy 

 storm occurred on the 13th of that month, during which he 

 shot the Tern here recorded. He informs me that he saw thirty 

 or more Terns but does not recollect of what species. He has no 

 record of the direction or duration of the storm, but remembers 

 that the Terns "were flying diagonally across the Lake from the 

 southwest, and continued their flight toward the Sound. I should 

 certainly conclude from all the conditions of the storm that the 

 birds were carried from their normal habitat by its force. In m}' 

 two years' wanderings about Ronkonkoma I never observed any 

 Terns before on the lake, although a local gunner told me he 

 had sometimes observed them, but I should say they were strag- 

 glers from the coast." As there was no published description of 

 the phase of plumage presented b}' this specimen t submitted it to 

 Mr. Robert; Ridgway, who writes, under date of Washington, 

 January 19, 1SS6, as follows: "I have carefully examined the 

 Tern, which is undoubtedly S. fiiJiginosa^ and is a young bird 

 apparently in its second year. It is in moult, and a very singu. 

 lar thing is that the new feathers appearing on the breast and 

 other lower parts are darker than the old plumage. From this 

 I infer that another moult w^ould be necessary — probably during 

 the following spring, but possibly not until the next autumn — 

 before the wliite plumage of the adult would be assumed. It is 

 possible tlie feathers themselves might eventually fade to wdiite, 

 but I regard this as hardly probable. I send a description, as 

 requested." 



^'- Sterna fuliginosa. A young bird in transition plumage (apparently in 

 second year) froiri Lake Ronkonkoma. Long Island (Sept. 13, 1S7S, 

 Charles Earle, collector), differs from the young in first plumage as de- 

 scribed in 'Water Birds of North America' (Vol. II, pp. 312, 313) as follows : 

 The rather light sooty brown plumage of the lower parts is much mixed 

 or clouded with a darker and less brownish sooty tint, these dark feathers 



