ROSEATE TERN 



Sterna dougalli 



Roseate Tern is the rarest of all our British-breeding 

 Terns, and very few of its breeding-places are known. 

 It is usually found in company with numbers of the 

 Common or the Arctic Tern, generally nesting among 

 their colonies. It has, however, been recorded as breeding 

 on the islands off the coast of Lancashire, on the Fame 

 Islands off Northumberland, and on one or two of the islands 

 off the coast of Scotland. Its chief breeding-places are on the American coasts. 



It is a most graceful bird on the wing, and may be generally recognised 

 by its short wings and long, forked tail. It is about the same size as the 

 Common Tern, but the adults often have the under parts suffused with a 

 beautiful roseate tinge. It is essentially a sea-coast bird, its food consisting 

 of small fish, which it catches in the same manner as its congeners, hovering 

 in the air like a miniature kestrel, and pouncing down on its prey to rise 

 immediately with a tiny fish held by the head. 



The call note of the Roseate Tern is a long-drawn ' krr-cee} rather like 

 that of the Common and Arctic Terns, but much more shrill and prolonged. 

 When disturbed at its breeding-haunts, besides the usual ' klk-klk-klk ' which 

 is common to all the Terns, it has a long piping note, ' kce-ec-ee, 1 almost like 

 a whistle, which can readily be distinguished among the babel of cries raised 

 by the accompanying throng of Common and Arctic Terns. 



In this country the Roseate Terns arrive at their breeding-stations about 

 the last week of April, and begin to lay about the end of May. On my 

 visit to the Fame Islands in June 1893, I distinguished the cry of the 

 Roseate Tern among the screaming of the hundreds of Common Terns on 

 Staples Island, and after much trouble, and nearly an hour's patient watching, 

 I succeeded in marking the three birds to their respective nests. As far 

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