Terns 



sharply pointed tail feathers, and the lovely rose-colored flush 

 it wears on its breast as a sort of wedding garment. . This tint 

 is all too transitory, however; family cares fade it to white; 

 death utterly destroys it, though it sometimes changes to a sal- 

 mon shade as the lifeless body cools, before disappearing forever. 

 Comparatively short of wing, the roseate tern cannot be said to 

 lose any of the buoyancy and grace of flight, the dash and ecstasy 

 that give to the movements of all the tribe their peculiar fasci- 

 nation. 



It has been said that these birds' eggs are paler than those 

 of the common terns, which are very variable, ranging from 

 olive gray or olive brownish gray to (more rarely) whitish or 

 buff, heavily marked with chocolate; but though they may aver- 

 age paler, many are identical with those just described; and as 

 the birds nest in precisely the same manner, on the same beach, 

 not even an expert could correctly name the egg every time with- 

 out seeing the adult bird that laid it identify its own. 



A single harsh note, cack, rises above the din made by the 

 common terns, and at once identifies the voice of the roseate 

 species. It would be unfair to attribute the melancholy, unpleas- 

 ing quality of the terns' voices to their dispositions, which we 

 have every reason to suppose are particularly joyous and amia- 

 ble. This bird also appears less excitable ; but in all other par- 

 ticulars than those already noted the common and the roseate terns 

 share the characteristics described in the preceding account, to 

 which the reader is referred. It is a gratification to know that at 

 the close of the first season, when the tern colony had been pro- 

 tected at Gull Island, Mr. Dutcher could report an increase of 

 from one thousand to fifteen hundred birds, virtually an increase 

 of one half the total number in one year. 



With the four species of tern that nest in the neighborhood 

 of New York and New England, the Arctic Tern (Sterna para- 

 discea) has nearly all characteristics in common, and the few pe- 

 culiarities that differentiate it from the common tern are quickly 

 learned. While these birds are similar in color, the Arctic tern 

 "differs in having less gray on the shaft part of the inner web of 

 the outer primaries, in having the tail somewhat longer, the tarsi 

 and bill shorter; while the latter, in the adult, is generally without a 

 black tip." (Chapman.) Its voice is shriller, with a rising inflec- 



53 



