Terns 



Common Tern 



(Sterna birundo) 



Called also: WILSON'S TERN; SEA SWALLOW; SUMMER 

 GULL; MACKEREL GULL 



Length 1410 15 inches. 



Male and Female In summer: Whole top of head velvety black, 

 tinged with greenish and extending to the lower level of 

 the eyes and onto the nape of neck. Mantle over back 

 and wings pearl gray. Throat white, but breast and under- 

 neath a lighter shade of gray, the characteristic that chiefly 

 distinguishes it from Forster's tern, which is pure white on 

 its under parts. Inner border of inner web of outer primaries 

 white, except at the tip. Tail white, the outer webs of the 

 outer feathers pearl gray. Tail forked and moderately elon- 

 gated, but the folded wings reach one or two inches beyond 

 it. Legs and feet orange red. Bill, which is as long as head, 

 is bright coral about two-thirds of its length, a black space 

 separating it from the extreme tip, which is yellow. In 

 winter: Similar to summer plumage, except that the front 

 part of head and under parts are pure white; also that the 

 bill becomes mostly black. Young birds similar to adults in 

 winter, but with brownish wash or mottles on the back, 

 with slaty shoulders and shorter tail. 



Range "In North America, chiefly east of the plains, breeding 

 from the Arctic coast, somewhat irregularly, to Florida, 

 Texas, and Arizona, and wintering northward to Virginia; 

 also coast of Lower California." A. O. U. 



Season Summer resident. May to October. 



Ironically must this particularly beautiful, graceful sea swal- 

 low now be called the common tern, for common it scarcely has 

 been, except in the dry-goods stores, since its sharply pointed 

 wings, and often its entire body also, were thought by the milli- 

 ners to give style to women's hats. Great boxes full of distorted 

 terns, their bills at impossible angles, their wings and tails bunched 

 together, sicken the bird-lover who strolls through the large city 

 shops on "opening day." Countless thousands of these birds 

 must have been slaughtered to supply the demand of thoughtless 

 women in the last twenty years ; and although the egret has had 

 its turn of persecution, and that in an especially cruel way, the 

 fashion for wearing terns, either entire or in sections, continues 



4 49 



