THE LEAST TERN. 567 



No. 271. 



LEAST TERN. 



A. O. U. No. 74. Sterna antillarum (Less.). 



Description. Adult in summer: Forehead white, in a crescentic, or V- 

 shaped patch with horns reaching above the eye ; the remainder of top of head and 

 nape,including lores, deep black ; upper parts nearly uniform, pale pearl-gray ; 

 the sides of breast sometimes tinged with same ; the three outer primaries and their 

 shafts plain dusky, or only slightly tinged with silvery gray, the inner half of the 

 inner webs distinctly white ; tail the color of back, forked for about half its length, 

 its longest feathers not reaching tip of folded wing ; under parts white ; bill bright 

 yellow, the extreme tip black; feet bright orange. Adult in winter: Similar,, 

 but black retreating from lores and crown ; bill and feet duller, the former often dus- 

 ky. Young : Similar to adult in winter, but lesser coverts slaty in a distinct patch ; 

 scapulars and interscapulars and tail with terminal and subterminal markings of 

 buffy and dusky ; the primaries much as in adult or darker ; bill blackish. Length 

 8.50-975 ( 21 5.9-247.6) ; wing 6.50 (165.1); tail 3.00 (76.2); bill i.io (27.9); 

 tarsus .60 (15.2). 



Recognition Marks. Chewink size, but of course more slimly proportioned ; 

 of nearly conventional coloring, but diminutive size unmistakable ; forehead white. 



Nesting. No positive record of breeding in Ohio, but probably did so for- 

 merly. Nest, on the ground, usually on beach sand or gravel. Eggs, 2 or 3, rarely 

 4, buffy or greenish white to drab, spotted and blotched with dark brown and 

 obscurely with lilac. Av. size, 1.26 x .91 (32. x 23.1). 



General Range. Northern South America northward to California, Minne- 

 sota, and New England, and casually to Labrador, breeding nearly throughout 

 its range. 



Range in Ohio. Rare and casual migrant. Formerly more abundant. 



LIKE Forster's Tern, this species is reported as breeding on the St. 

 Clair Flats in Michigan, and, as long as it does so, it must occasionally pass 

 to and fro across this state. Recent records of its occurrence hereabouts 

 are very meagre, and there is grave reason to fear that the milliner's agent 

 has about completed his bloody work. 



Altho least in size this dainty bird lacks nothing of dash or spirit, ming- 

 ling as it does more or less with its larger fellows, and securing its full share 

 of sea-spoil. In the interior it subsists principally upon insects, dragon-flies, 

 spiders, and aquatic sorts ; and, but for its color, would often pass among the 

 unlearned as a Swallow. 



Like its congeners, the Least Tern deposits its eggs upon beach-sand or 

 gravel, rarely covering them by day, but depending upon the tender (?) mer- 

 cies of the sun. It seems probable that the large proportion of addled eggs 

 found among sea-birds, is in part traceable to the intemperate zeal of the 

 foster mother. This shifting of responsibility is not due to indifference on 



