WHITE-WINGED BLACK TERN. 535 



the winter plumage of this species appear to be known. 

 M. Temminck, in a note in his Manual, vol. ii. page 748, 

 mentions his strong supposition that the Sterna plumbea 

 of Wilson may be this bird in winter ; but in addition to 

 the circumstance that the Sterna leucoptera is not included 

 among the birds of the United States by the ornithologists 

 of that country, the Sterna plumbea of Wilson is now, with 

 good reason, believed to be the young of Sterna fasipis, or 

 nigra, as it is also called, in the plumage of its first autumn, 

 and identical with the Sterna ncevia of Pennant. 



An adult male specimen in its summer plumage has the 

 beak reddish-brown ; the irides greyish-black ; the head, 

 neck, and middle of the back black, the feathers becoming 

 lighter in colour towards the rump ; upper tail-coverts 

 and tail-feathers white ; anterior portion of the outside of 

 the wing white, passing into a light grey on the larger 

 wing-coverts ; the first, second, third, and sometimes as 

 many of the first five of the primary wing-feathers black, 

 the number depending on age, these have all white shafts, 

 and with a considerable portion of white along the base of 

 the broad inner web ; the other primaries light grey ; the 

 secondaries, tertials, and the scapulary feathers slate grey. 

 The chin, neck in front, breast, belly, sides, and flanks 

 black ; under wing-coverts some black, others slate grey, 

 under tail-coverts, and under surface of the tail-feathers 

 white ; legs, toes, and their membranes pale yellow in the 

 preserved bird, coral red in the living bird; the claws 

 black, the interdigital membranes very much indented. 



The whole length of the specimen described is nine 

 inches and a half; the wing from the anterior joint to the 

 end of the first primary, which is the longest in the wing, 

 eight inches and a quarter. 



Another White-winged Black Tern, a young bird killed 

 in the month of August, had the beak black, the angle 



